About Presentations:

Action: Review and comment, comment with edits, the May 13, 2021 Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee Action Summary.

Summary:  The Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee should elect a chair and co-chair to serve the committee during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Action: Election of a chair and a co-chair to serve on the committee for the next fiscal year. 

Summary:  The Oversight Committee currently holds a seat on the Fresno COG Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) Roundtable, a committee providing expertise and generating concensus on RTP development issues. The Roundtable meetings are held once a month on the fourth Wednesday at 1:00 pm via Zoom. COC's RTP Roundtable representative was Kevin Hamilton who termed out of the Oversight Committee on July 31, 2021. Kevin's alternate is Bill Jordan. 

Staff requests that both positions be reappointed (or reaffirmed) by the Oversight Committee membership. 

Action:  Approve the Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee's RTP Roundtable representative and alternate appointments.

Summary:  The Fresno County Transportation Authority Executive Director, Mike Leonardo, will give a report on the Measure C Expenditure Plan renewal effort underway. Information regarding the renewal is located online at this link.

Action: Informational

Summary: This budget does not fall under the purvue of the COC but is provided for reference to the project and administrative costs that are split between the Original Measure and the Extension Measure. This proposed 2021-22 Original Measure C budget has no estimated sales tax revenue during the fiscal year due to the expiration of the original Measure C sales tax levy in 2007. However, it is estimated to gain $600,000 in interest revenue which will be used to fund the remaining urban and rural projects.  

A narrative explaining the purpose of each expense is provided for each line item within the budget.

Action: Review and Comment

Summary: 

This proposed 2021-22 Measure C Extension budget includes estimated sales tax revenue and interest earnings to be received during the 2021-22 fiscal year of $90,752,699, a $14.2 million increase over last year’s approved budget. This revenue estimate reflects a moderately conservative 2% projected increase over 2020-21 actual revenues, which equates to a 18.6% increase over last year’s approved budget. The 2020-21 budget reflected a cautious decline in revenues due to COVID, but actual revenues collected significantly exceeded those projections. Looking back to 2019-20, this proposed budget is an 8.9% increase, or 4.5% percent per year over 2019-20 which was the most recent year unaffected by COVID. The budget includes approximately $2.5 million in interest income.

Action: Review and Comment

Summary:  The RTMF revenue projection is the result of a collaborative effort between the Fresno County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office and RTMF Agency staff, which took into consideration projected development activity in Fresno County during the 2021-22 fiscal year.  The fee income identified in this budget is the result of applying the RTMF fee schedule, as updated by the Board in January 2020, to the development activity estimated to take place during the upcoming fiscal year.

There are no proposed administrative salaries, benefits, or support costs proposed in this budget because the fee is calculated and collected by the RTMF Agency.  Costs associated with RTMF Administration are also covered by a separate fee imposed and collected by the RTMF Agency.

As has been mentioned in previous budget presentations, Fresno County has been fortunate to receive previously unanticipated State and federal grants for local transportation projects.  Although these grants allowed for early delivery of projects, they required local matching funds.  Some of this local match was planned to be funded through the RTMF fee revenue. However, due to the 2008 recession, sufficient funds had not yet been collected.  Rather than forgo the grant funding, COG and the Authority chose to deliver those projects early using money loaned to the RTMF fund from the original and extension Measure C funds.  It remains the intent of both the Authority and COG that these loans will be repaid by the RTMF Fund to the Measure C funds.

The RTMF fund currently has an uncommitted fund balance of $3,215,485 in cash and the budget under consideration today proposes to continue repaying the RTMF loans by transferring this current fiscal year’s uncommitted fund balance to Measure C in 2021-22. Annual payback will include prior year uncommitted fund balance minus the anticipated Administrative Expenditures.  This payback process will continue annually to service the outstanding loan balance.  The current outstanding loan balance as of March 31, 2021 is $66,750,638 which reflects the total prior years payback of $29,783,511 against the loan principal and accumulated interest. This budget is the continuation of that repayment effort. 

The 2021-22 RTMF budget identifies an estimated $4,800,000 million in fee collection revenue based on recent development activity in Fresno County and $38,400 in interest earnings.  The final category of resources available to deliver the RTMF construction program in 2021-22 is $16,805,600 in Measure C Loans that are estimated to be needed to service ongoing construction contracts in the coming year.  These funds are available, if needed, to pay costs as they come due for on-going contracts and will be added to the outstanding $66,750,638 million Measure C loan identified above to be amortized over the remaining life of the fee program.  Combining all of the above listed resources, results in a total of $24,859,485 available to deliver the 2021-22 RTMF Program.

The expenditure side of the proposed 2021-22 RTMF Budget identifies $21,644,000 for construction projects, $15,000 for Services and Supplies which is made up of an estimated $5,000 for legal services and $10,000 for Consultant Services to update the Strategic Implementation Plan as needed to reflect the changes resulting from the anticipated 2020 Measure C Expenditure Plan update and $3,200,485 in Measure C RTMF Loan payback program.

Action: Review and Comment

Summary: 

The Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee is charged with annually developing an annual report to the public. A subcommittee should be formed to develop the report. The chair will be accepting volunteers to sit on the subcommittee.

• Status report on the Fresno COG RTP Roundtable and RTP update progress from COC representative Bill Jordan
• Status report on the Measure C Renewal Process from COC Represntative to the MC3 Technical Working Group (TWG) Jim Hunter

A.  Upcoming 2021 COC meeting dates - please reserve these dates from 4-6:00 pm:

• September 9, 2021
• October 14, 2021
• November 11, 2021
• December 9, 2021

B.  Items for the next agenda

C.  Upcoming Meetings of other related Boards/Committee

• Fresno County Transportation Authority Board - Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 9:00 AM
• Measure C Executive Committee Meeting - September 8 at 1:30 PM
• Fresno COG Transportation Technical Committee - Friday, September 10, 2021 at 8:30 AM
• Fresno COG Policy Advisory Committee - Friday, September 10, 2021 at 10:00 AM
• Fresno COG RTP Roundtable - Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at 1:00 PM
• Measure C Technical Working Group Meeting - September 22, 2021 at 3:00 PM
• Fresno COG Policy Board - Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 5:30 PM
• Fresno County Transportation Authority Board - Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 9:00 AM