All items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and non-controversial by COG staff and will be approved by one motion if no member of the Committee or public wishes to comment or ask questions.  If comment or discussion is desired by anyone, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered in the listed sequence with an opportunity for any member of the public to address the Committee concerning the item before action is taken.

Summary:  In accordance with Fresno County Transportation Authority procedures, Resolution 2019-23 adopts claims for ADA/seniors/paratransit ($643,532), farmworker vanpools ($472,466), ridesharing/vanpools ($472,466) and administrative/planning ($407,299) from the $1,995,763 in Measure C funds available in 2019-20 for programs Fresno COG administers.

Action:  Adopt Resolution 2019-23 approving Measure C Claims for ADA/seniors/paratransit, farmworker vanpools, ridesharing/vanpools and administrative/planning functions.

Summary:  Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission (FCEOC) is claiming $1,232,942 in Transportation Development Act funding in support of the $3,931,339 2019-20 Urban Consolidated Transportation Services Agency (CTSA) operating budget.

Action:  Adopt Resolution 2019-20 approving FCEOC's 2019-20 Transportation Development Act claim.

Summary: Fresno County Rural Transit Agency (FCRTA) and Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission (FCEOC) are claiming $550,952 in Transportation Development Act funding to support the $2,595,052 2019-20 Rural Consolidated Transportation Services Agency operating budget.

Action:  Adopt Resolution 2019-21 approving the FCRTA/FCEOC 2019-20 Transportation Development Act claim.

Summary: The Consolidated Transportation Service Agency’s (CTSA) Operations Program and Budget (OPB) for Fiscal Year 2019-20 is available on Fresno COG's website at: http://fresnocog.org. The document is designed to provide an overview of how and in what manner the CTSA will provide social service transportation throughout Fresno County over the next fiscal year. The OPB consists of an urban component and a rural component. Co-designees for the urban CTSA are the City of Fresno/FAX and the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission (FEOC). Co-designees for the rural CTSA are the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency (FCRTA) and the FEOC. The OPB's 45-day review process began on May 7, 2019 and the Social Service Transportation Advisory Council (SSTAC) approved the document on June 25, 2019. 

Previously, at the June 4, 2019 SSTAC meeting, the City of Fresno, as the fiscal agent and co-designee for the urban CTSA, requested the SSTAC to defer action on the OPB until it could review accounting related issues in the urban OPB. At issue was a funding carryover that had extended over several fiscal years. FCRTA, the fiscal agent and co-designee for the rural CTSA, supported deferring action on the rural OPB so that action could be taken on both OPBs at the same time.

Between the June 4 and June 25 SSTAC meetings, FAX and FEOC staff worked together to satisfactorily address the carryover issues. At the June 25, 2019 SSTAC meeting, both the City of Fresno and FCRTA recommended that the SSTAC approve the urban and rural CTSA OBPs with the stipulation that existing MOUs be reviewed, updated and revised accordingly for both the urban and rural co-designations.

Action:  Staff and the SSTAC request that the TTC/PAC recommend the Fresno COG Board approve Resolution 2019-16 adopting the Urban and Rural Consolidated Transportation Service Agency’s Operations Program and Budget. 

Summary: On April 11, 2019, Fresno COG issued a formal call for projects for $828,509 in Fresno Large Urban Area FTA Section 5310 funding. Staff received four applications requesting $1,220,665. A scoring committee comprising volunteers from the Social Service Technical Advisory Committee (SSTAC) evaluated the applications and issued funding recommendations. The full SSTAC unanimously approved the scoring committee’s recommendations on June 25, 2019, which include:

APPLICANT                                                                              RECOMMENDATION

Fresno Area Express                                                                          $257,030

Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission                             $257,030

United Cerebral Palsy of Central California                                            $257,030

WestCare California                                                                             $57,419

                                                                                           TOTAL    $828,509

Attached to this item is a spreadsheet detailing the project applications.

Action: Staff and SSTAC request that TTC/PAC recommend the Policy Board approve the SSTAC scoring committee’s recommendations for the 2019 FTA Section 5310 program of projects.  Approved projects will be programmed for funding in the 2019 Federal Transportation Improvement Program (FTIP).

Summary:  On June 4, 2019, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted Resolution No. 19-236, which included homelessness priorities for 2019.  The list, which is not in priority order, was compiled through meetings with incorporated cities and the directors of the departments of Behavioral Health, Public Health, and Social Services.

Fresno County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau requests the 14 priorities be adopted to affirm the Fresno Council of Governments' commitment to work collaboratively with the incorporated cities and the County to strategically address homelessness countywide. The list addresses: jurisdictional boundaries, transportation, outreach, housing, data collection, direct services, and preserving public health and safety. These priorities will allow County staff to focus on seeking funding, recommending for allocation and/or using flexible homeless funding to deliver related services. The list will be updated based on data-driven outcomes at least once each calendar year.

Action:  Staff requests that TTC/PAC recommend the Policy Board approve Resolution 2019-18 adopting the Countywide Homelessness Priorities For Calendar Year 2019

Summary: Fresno COG is identifying where the region’s transportation network is vulnerable to potential impacts of climate change.  These impacts could include: increased temperatures, more extreme heat days, flooding, drought, and wildfires.  This effort is called the Fresno County Regional Transportation Network Vulnerability Assessment and is intended to find solutions to benefit the entire Fresno County community and improve regional transportation.

We want your input. Please complete the Transportation Network Vulnerability Assessment Survey by visiting:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FresnoTNVA

Please contact Meg Prince, Associate Regional Planner, at mprince@fresnocog.org or (559) 233-4148 x203 with any questions or for more information.

Action: Information. The Committee may provide additional direction at its discretion.

Summary: The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has announced final guidelines for the approximately $5 million available under this round of Assembly Bill 617 (AB 617) Community Air Grants. Community Air Grants projects build capacity in communities by supporting community-based organizations’ and community members’ participation, including methods to acquire new or better information regarding air quality and related health impacts, as well as measures to reduce air pollution in over-burdened communities and to facilitate greenhouse gas emission reductions.

The full set of guidelines is available at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/2019_Air_Grant_Guidelines_Final.pdf

Applications for AB 617 Community Air Grants are due by 5 pm, Monday, September 30, 2019.

Questions may be submitted via email to AirGrants@arb.ca.gov by 5 p.m., Thursday, July 11, 2019.  After this date, CARB will not accept questions on the guidelines or application process.  CARB will release a complete question-and-answer document by Wednesday, July 31, 2019, and will post it on its website.

Action: Information. The Committee may provide additional direction at its discretion.

Summary:  Fresno Council of Governments' Policy Board, acting as the Fresno County Mayors’ Select Committee and Chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, needs to appoint seven new members to the Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee (COC) consistent with the November 2006 voter-approved Measure C Expenditure Plan.

The COC informs the public and ensures that Measure C program revenues are spent as promised.

The Measure C Expenditure Plan specifies that the COC shall comprise 13 members, including six at-large public members who respectively reside in each one of the five Fresno County Supervisorial Districts. Three of the six must reside in the Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area and two must reside in the unincorporated rural area of the county (east and west). The remaining seven members must be representatives drawn from a diverse mix of interested community organizations.

Members serve four-year terms, with a maximum limit of eight years on the committee. Appendix G of the Measure C Extension Expenditure Plan (attached) states the Committee’s duties and responsibilities. There are seven vacancies with four-year terms to begin July 1, 2019:

• Four positions for community organization representatives (Organization/agency/service clubs/chamber, etc. must provide an applicant with a letter of recommendation.)

• Three public-at-large positions representing the following:

• Unincorporated rural area west of State Route 99 (supervisorial district 1)
• Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area (supervisorial district 2)
• Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area (any of the supervisorial districts)

Should applicants have any questions, please call Brenda Veenendaal at 559-233-4148, ext. 219. 

The Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee’s webpage is: fresnocog.org/citizen-oversight-committee/

Action: Information. The Committee may provide additional direction at its discretion.

Summary: Fresno COG released a request for proposals (RFP) in May for a combined 2019-20 Circuit Planner and Engineer Program with a contract amount of $100,000. The Circuit Planner and Engineer Program is intended to provide technical assistance to the small cities in Fresno County. Such assistance could include planning studies, project deliveries, grant applications, environmental documents, engineering services, etc.

Fresno COG received two proposals from planning and engineering firms. The consultant selection committee comprising representatives from the Cities of Kingsburg, Reedley, San Joaquin, and Fresno COG reviewed both proposals and interviewed both teams of consultants on June 19. Although both teams were highly qualified, the committee chose the Rincon Consultants Inc., which includes Collins & Schoettler and VSCE as sub-consultants, as the preferred contractor. The Rincon team’s areas of expertise and its extensive history working with small cities in Fresno County will provide a good foundation for understanding and addressing the cities’ needs.

The Rincon team will begin reaching out to each of the small cities in August to solicit projects for this program year. Please contact Meg Prince, Associate Regional Planner, at mprince@fresnocog.org or (559) 233-4148 x203 to discuss project assistance needs.

Action: Staff requests that the TTC/PAC recommend the Board approve Rincon Consultants, Inc. as the consultant for the Fresno COG Circuit Planner and Engineer Program, and authorize Fresno COG’s executive director to enter into a contract with Rincon Consultants Inc. for $100,000.

Summary: Fresno COG, in partnership with the Fresno Metro Ministries, was awarded $543,950 through Caltrans' Fiscal Year 2019-20 Strategic Partnership Grant for the Better Blackstone Design Challenge.

The Better Blackstone Design Challenge (BBDC) is a strategic partnership aimed at increasing investment in sustainable transportation projects by developing tools for transit supportive land uses; objectives and policies for complete streets; multi-modal systems, and; protecting regional facility capacities. The project will produce alternative, feasible transit-oriented development design scenarios for more than 200 mixed-use designated parcels. It includes gap-financing-related economic, real estate and urban footprint analyses translated into useful web-based tools and ongoing technical assistance for property owners, developers and funders.

This grant award leverages Fresno COG Overall Work Program (OWP) work element 146, which is funded with Senate Bill 1 formula funds. Work elements 146 and 160 will be closely coordinated; both will be completed concurrently and without duplicating tasks or deliverables. 

Action: Staff requests that the TTC/PAC recommend the Policy Board authorize Fresno COG's executive director to enter into a contract with Fresno Metro Ministries for the Better Blackstone Design Challenge Strategic Partnership Grant for an amount not to exceed $457,557.

Summary:  During 2018-2019, Fresno COG contracted with multiple community-based organizations to conduct diverse and extensive grassroots outreach among people who may qualify for subsidies under Measure C's Ag Worker Vanpool (AVP) program. The goal was to double annual participation and ridership from an average of 45 vanpools to more than 100.

The outreach contracts expired on June 30, 2019. However, the contracted agencies have agreed to a contract extension through June 30, 2020, to continue the outreach with a renewed focus. The two agencies are:

• Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities (CBDIO) 

• Office of Community and Economic Development- Fresno State (OCED)

Program background:

Approximately 0.6 percent of Measure C funds are applied to AVP (formerly known as the Farmworker Vanpool Program), as subsidies to help farm laborers pay for their transportation to job sites when they ride in an approved vanpool. Funds are available on a first-come, first-served basis until exhausted. All participating groups are required to use an authorized vanpool provider or form an employer-sponsored vanpool. Owner-operator vanpools are not eligible.

Measure C funds subsidize ag worker vanpools that originate within Fresno County. These funds are designed to spark new vanpools. A weekly lease subsidy pays $30 for each day of operation (not to exceed $150 in one week) for up to one year. This subsidy may be renewed on an annual basis.

Work accomplished in the 2018-2019 fiscal year:

During the contract year, CDBIO (Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno) (Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities) conducted an extensive and direct outreach from June–December 2018.  The strategy consisted of community and targeted-area outreach events.  Such events included: several dates at the Mexican Consulate's “Ventanilla de Salud” (Window of Health) and “Sabatino Health Fair” (Saturday Health Fair) days; community events in Kerman, Parlier, and several workshops in Fresno elementary schools. CBDIO staff dedicated eight days toward door-to-door contacts in six targeted zip codes. CBDIO referred ten interested people to CalVans to get vetted as CalVans drivers.  Two completed all requirements specified by CalVans. Neither driver, however, picked up the two vans that were set aside for them.

CSUF Fresno Foundation through the Office of Community and Economic Development (OSED) contacted several labor contractors from April-June, 2018.  Ten identified labor contractors showed interest in learning more about the Measure C program.  Follow-up workshops were to be conducted by OCED to go over the information and sign up contractors.  The proposed schedule was September 11 in Mendota; September 13 in Huron; October 16 in Parlier, and October 18 in Fowler.  The ten contractors were also referred to CalVans as well to learn about the pros and cons of using vans provided by CalVans in place of their own ag-labor transportation vehicles.  OCED suffered staff turnovers after June 2018 and was unable to complete its proposed objectives within the grant period.

Debrief discussions with the outreach agency staff revealed that grantees understood that CalVans was the only vanpool provider qualified to receive the Measure C ag worker subsidies.  Lack of available vans from the assumed provider (CalVans) during the last six months of 2018 and the first months of 2019 also dampened the grantees' outreach progress. A large percentage of newly-acquired CalVans vans are already committed even before they are delivered, with about 50 percent of them being used to transport H2A workers through the various counties where CalVans operates.

Therefore, Fresno COG staff and representatives from the two outreach agencies would like to continue working together to correct misunderstandings about the availability of program dollars and continue outreaching to ag workers and farm labor contractors using grant dollars previously approved. Outreach would continue through the end of the fiscal year 2019-20.

Action:  Authorize the executive director to extend two $25,000 contracts for the community-based organizations listed above, through June 30, 2020, on behalf of the Measure C Agricultural Vanpool program's public outreach services.

Summary: Senate Bill 743 (SB 743, 2013), requires that the traffic congestion metric level of service (LOS) be replaced in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process with a metric that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), develop a multi-modal transportation system and increase land use diversity. The Office of Planning and Research (OPR) recommended vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as the most appropriate metric to measure the transportation impacts for developments, considering it is more aligned with the state’s goals of reducing GHG emissions through infill development, active transportation and other sustainable land use and transportation projects.

The California Natural Resources Agency approved the CEQA update implementing SB 743 in December 2018. The new CEQA guideline sections created under SB 743 will take full effect statewide on July 1, 2020, although lead agencies may choose to opt-in earlier. SB 743 will have profound impacts on how local governments and other lead agencies approve land use and transportation projects.

Fresno COG has developed an SB 743 Local Assistance Program to assist member agencies. Approximately $270,000 has been set aside to develop regional guidelines for local governments to update their traffic impact study policies. The guidelines will be advisory, and the local governments can endorse the entire document or some components of it based on their individual needs. The guidelines will take into consideration large and small cities, as well as urban and (county) rural areas.

Staff issued an RFP in May and received two proposals. A scoring committee comprising representatives from COG, Fresno, Clovis, County of Fresno, eastside cities and westside cities interviewed the consultant teams. The committee recommended LSA be selected to develop the regional guidelines. LSA is an established environmental firm with expertise in CEQA and SB 743. As a recognized leader on SB 743, LSA has in-depth knowledge and understanding of the regulatory environment and has been closely following SB 743 implementation throughout the State.

Attached is the scope for the SB 743 regional guidelines development project.

Action: Staff requests that TTC/PAC recommend that the Policy Board authorize the executive director to enter into a contract with LSA for an amount not to exceed $ 269,605.58.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the Committee on items within its jurisdiction but not on this agenda.  Note:  Prior to action by the Committee on any item on this agenda, the public may comment on that item.  Unscheduled comments may be limited to 3 minutes.