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:  Fresno COG's threshold for capitalizing equipment has long been $5,000.  Beginning in 2022-23, new federal accounting standards impose significant reporting requirements and financial statement disclosures on software leases and licensing.  The software industry has changed its business model to annual licensing through the Internet, which means that within the existing threshold, Fresno COG would be required to capitalize and depreciate routine software licenses. This requirement significantly increases the time external auditors and staff must spend analyzing a host of miscellaneous software licenses, such as the subscription to Microsoft Office, which to all extents and purposes are immaterial to our financial statements.

The solution is to increase the threshold for what defines a capital asset. This does not increase the small purchase threshold, which is $10,000. It merely increases the threshold by which staff will capitalize and depreciate a capital item. This will have no effect on cash flow or financial conditions.

Recommendation:  Authorize Resolution 2023-31 increasing of the threshold for capitalizing equipment and leases with a useful life of one year or more to $10,000.

Summary: Staff proposes to extend the original contract between Fresno Council of Governments and Replica Inc., executed in December 2022 for the activity-based model's (ABM) update and data needs. The platform subscription agreement on the extension or renewal contract will remain the same as in the original contract.

Replica is an online, subscription-based big data platform and next-generation urban planning tool that can help a region answer key transportation and land use questions. It is a synthetically generated representation of the activities and movement of residents, visitors, and commercial vehicle fleets in a region for a particular week during a given season. Replica represents movement by combining data from three primary sources: public use population census data; proprietary locational data from telecommunications, and other IT infrastructure in the region, and; field observation data from public agencies (ground truth).

Replica has been primarily used as a replacement to the statewide model to determine the interregional trips within Fresno County region. With the outdated statewide model, Fresno COG’s ABM had been inaccurately estimating the trips that are linked with places outside the Fresno County boundary. Along with resolving this issue, Replica has been used as a supplement to the calibration and validation of the ABM. As the base year update of ABM is expected to be completed by spring 2024, extending the  contract by six months with an option to further extend beyond that term seems a reasonable approach. The budget for this extension is $24,000.

Action: Staff requests that TTC/PAC recommend the Policy Board authorize the executive director to extend the original contract with Replica by six months for an amount not to exceed $24,000.

Summary:  A round-up of upcoming Federal and State grant opportunities of potential interest to local governments.

Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator Grant

Focuses on repairing or replacing broken or non-operational EV chargers to improve existing EV charging structure reliability. This first round of approximately $100 million in funding will provide a targeted and cost-effective mechanism to rapidly increase the number of available chargers in parallel to larger-scale deployments funded by the NEVI Formula Program, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program, and other State, local, and private investments.  The application deadline is Nov. 13.  Find the NOFO at https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=350190

Caltrans Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program

The California Department of Transportation has released the 2024-25 Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant application guide and call for applications.  A total of $53.4 million is available for transportation planning projects statewide.

The Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program includes:

• Sustainable Communities Grants ($29.5 million) to encourage local and regional planning that supports state goals, implements Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCS) (where applicable), and to ultimately achieve the State’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target of 40 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 2050, respectively. 

• NEW! Climate Adaptation Planning Grants ($31.9 million) support local and regional identifying transportation-related climate vulnerabilities through climate adaptation plans, as well as project-level adaptation planning to identify adaptation projects and strategies for transportation infrastructure. 

• Strategic Partnerships Grants ($4.5 million) to identify and address statewide, interregional, or regional transportation deficiencies on the State highway system in partnership with Caltrans. A subcategory funds transit-focused planning projects that address multimodal transportation deficiencies.

Applications are due by Jan. 18, 2024.

For more information, see the website at https://dot.ca.gov/programs/transportation-planning/division-of-transportation-planning/regional-and-community-planning/sustainable-transportation-planning-grants

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

Summary: Staff proposes allocating $42.35 million in State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funding to the State Route 99/American Avenue interchange for construction in 2025-26.  This proposal follows staff's August Policy Board advisory setting up the American Avenue interchange as the primary candidate for this year's STIP target given its status as the next Rural Tier 1 Measure C project in line for funding.

In June, the California Transportation Commission (CTC)  issued STIP guidelines and fund balance estimates. The STIP is an important, five-year transportation funding program that provides the Fresno County region $8-10 million a year for major transportation improvements. The CTC conducts biennial calls for projects, adding two years each cycle. The STIP has a regional component directed to the regional transportation planning agencies known as the RTIP and a state wide component administered by Caltrans known as the Interregional Transportation Improvement Program (ITIP).  Fresno COG has $43.4 million in the 2024 RTIP target available to program in the 2024/25 – 2028/29 cycle.

The CTC guidelines require the RTIP recommendation to be adopted by the Fresno COG in November for submittal to the CTC by Dec. 15 to allow for public hearings and adoption in March 2024.  In August staff advised the board the current strategy was to coordinate with Caltrans to develop the application to include the American Avenue interchange as the primary candidate for  this year's target.  That strategy is in play; however, Caltrans headquarters issued a belated determination that inflationary cost adjustments should be added to estimates for state highway projects.  District 6 is in the process of incorporating those factors into their cost estimates. This does not affect the staff recommendation to program the STIP target given that the requested funds will not change when the cost estimates are final.  Staff is concurrently working on updating the Measure C Regional Transportation Programs expenditure plan and favorable sales tax receipts provide an adequate cushion to offset inflationary adjustments.  The current construction estimate for American is $51 million. 

Both the American Avenue and North Cedar interchanges on SR 99 have already been environmentally cleared.

In the 2020 STIP cycle, Fresno COG programmed $42.3 million in Regional Improvement Program (RIP) funding against the North Cedar interchange for construction in 2023-24.  However, a lawsuit against the environmental document and the City of Fresno has forced Caltrans to request a STIP amendment, moving the construction phase back to 2024-25. In addition, the City of Fresno has delayed adopting a freeway service agreement with Caltrans, pending settlement of the lawsuit.  This has, in turn, prohibited Caltrans from acquiring  right of way. It is appropriate to move the project back to 2025/26. The City of Fresno has hired a consultant to address the issues related to the lawsuit and is hopeful the issues can be resolved and the freeway service agreement executed soon. 

Since North Cedar and American avenues were environmentally cleared on the same document, the lawsuit also affects the schedule for American. However, Caltrans does not require a freeway service agreement with the County, so the right-of-way phase for American can proceed while the lawsuit progresses.   

The CTC also allows the regional transportation planning agency (Fresno COG) to include Project Programming and  Management (PPM) funding in the target.  This recommendation programs $545,000 in PPM for 2027/28 and 2028/29 ($1.09 million total) to  cover monitoring of CTC activities and overall administration of federal and state projects that make up FCOG’s Federal Transportation Improvement Program. 

The 2024 STIP proposal totals $114.8 million, which includes $71.36 million in projects carried forward from previous STIP cycles that are ongoing, such as: $6.86 million for landscaping the SR 180 west freeway, $12 million for the SR 41 Excelsior gap closure project, $45.3 million for the North Cedar interchange, $4.76 million previously programmed for American Avenue and $2.4 million in PPM.

Recommendation: Adopt Resolution 2023-36, programming $43,443,000 as the 2024 STIP Regional Transportation Improvement Program target.

Summary:   Over the last several months a Group of Ten proponents and opponents of our recent Measure C renewal effort have continued to meet in an effort to determine if there was enough “trust” between both sides to continue work on a Measure C Renewal effort.  The summary results of that effort are included as an attachment with the title:

Moving Forward Together: Securing Fresno County’s Transportation Future  

The purpose of the document is to provide an outline and a framework for the next Measure C Renewal effort.  Participants in the Group of Ten process were as follows: 

1. Alma Beltran, Mayor Parlier, Fresno COG Policy Board Chair
2. Gloria Hernandez, Community Organizer and Activist
3. Henry Perea, Former Fresno County Supervisor/Fresno City Councilmember
4. Jerry Dyer, Mayor of Fresno
5. Lynee Ashbeck, Mayor of Clovis
6. Sandra Celedon, Fresno Building Healthy Communities
7. Veronica Garibay, Leadership Counsel for Justice, and Accountability
8. Scott Miller, Fresno Chamber of Commerce
9. Travis Alexander and David Rivas, Northern California Carpenters Union
10. Kato Prado, Youth Leadership Institute

COG staff’s presentation identified the following 3 reasons as to why it would be prudent to wait until 2026 to attempt another renewal effort:

1. Inadequate time to develop a new Expenditure Plan with adequate public outreach, gain the necessary local city councils and regional board (Fresno COG/FCTA) and Board of Supervisors approval and still have enough time to raise the necessary campaign funds from the private sector to increase its chances of passage.  

2. There are two statewide ballot measures on the November 2024 ballot that will have a very important and direct impact on the Measure C renewal effort.  The first is Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 (ACA1). ACA1 was recently approved by the State legislature for inclusion on the November 2024 ballot. In summary, ACA 1 would lower the threshold for voter approval of sales tax measures that address public infrastructure and housing from its current 66% to 55%. If ACA 1 is approved by the voters (requires 50%+1 to pass), the Measure C renewal would only require a 55% threshold for passage. Keep in mind, the 2022 renewal effort resulted in 58% support despite considerable opposition. The other statewide ballot measure that has qualified for 2024 is the Taxpayer & Government Accountability Act (TGAA).  If passed, this would “raise” the percentage threshold required for citizen initiative tax increases from the current 50% plus one threshold for passage, up to two-thirds (66%) for passage.

Given that the results of on ACA1 and TGAA will not be known until after the November 2024 election, it would not make sense to develop a new Measure C expenditure plan without knowing what the voter threshold will be 55% or 66%, as a expenditure plan that that requires 55% voter support for passage will likely look much different than one that requires 66% support.      

3.  Post election polling was very clear that Fresno County voters’ highest priority is addressing the street and road maintenance needs of our communities. Independent of the renewal effort, but critical to identifying the pavement needs within our region, Fresno COG will be hiring a consultant to update our existing county wide pavement condition survey. The last pavement survey was done before last year’s significant winter storms. Based upon all three polls commissioned by FCTA, it remains clear that fixing roads remains the public’s number one priority. Data from this new countywide pavement condition survey will be critical in determining the level of investment necessary to bring roads throughout Fresno County from poor/fair to good condition.

Following staff’s presentation and a powerpoint presentation  by the Leadership Counsel on the background and process used to develop the Moving Forward Together: Securing Fresno County’s Transportation Future document, there was robust discussion involving public and Policy Board comments ultimately resulting in direction being given by the Fresno COG Board to the Executive Director to meet with the Group of Ten to help “fine tune” the Moving Forward Together:  Securing Fresno County’s Transportation Future document based on his administrative experience with the 1986 and 2006 Measure C processes.

Recommendation:  Information/Discussion.  Direction may be provided at the discretion of the Fresno CPOG Policy Board.  

Summary: Beginning in August 2023, Fresno COG staff has been reaching out to and meeting with rural and urban school districts in Fresno County, per the direction of the FCOG Policy Board. FCOG has been collecting an inventory of Safe Routes to School needs for all the school districts in the county through an interactive map survey. This inventory of needs will be incorporated into our Regional Active Transportation Plan Update. Documented in the chart below is the list of which school districts we have met with, which school districts have responded to the map survey, and which school districts we have not met with.

We have reached out to all the school districts through multiple emails, a letter, and phone calls, and have successfully met with 24/32 school districts; however, there are still a few school districts that have not gotten back to us (see list below).

We plan to start reaching out to local jurisdictions this month to discuss overlaps between their ATP projects and the SRTS inventory submitted by school districts. Once SRTS projects are incorporated into our ATP Update, member agencies can apply for funding through COG (ATP funds, Measure C, etc.). Our intent is that school districts and local jurisdictions will work together and share resources for the local match requirement to guarantee the development of the projects.

This project comes in response to the Measure C renewal process. Voters that were opposed to the measure felt that Measure C has not adequately supported safe routes to schools within our community. Our goal is that this cross-jurisdictional (transportation-education) regional planning process will help ensure that safe routes to schools are implemented in our communities.

*have not met with us

Action: Information/Discussion. Direction may be provided at the discretion of the Fresno COG Policy Board.  

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 three minutes.