[Council Communication]  [Attachments]

Council Communication

Title:	Approval of Recommended Changes to Bylaws for the Rogue Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RVMPO) Boundary Expansion
Dept:	Public Works Department
Date:	March 4, 2003
Submitted By:	Paula Brown
Approved By: ...........................	Gino Grimaldi, City Administrator

Synopsis:	At the November 6, 2002 study session, Council received a presentation on the Rogue Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RVMPO) from the Rogue Valley Council of Governments as the designated support arm for the RVMPO. Since then, there have been several RVMPO meetings and a combined MPO "Summit" to discuss and resolve issues involving current and potential new members of this required merger. The primary concerns stemmed around voting rights, voting structure and funding decisions, and the MPO Summit produced recommended changes to the current bylaws. Once approved by the existing and new MPO jurisdictions, the MPO Policy Committee intends to discuss and hopefully approve these changes to the bylaws at their March 25, 2003 meeting.
Recommendation:	It is recommended that Council review and approve the attached recommended changes to the bylaws that would: Amend the bylaws to incorporate new members as voting members of the MPO; and Amend the bylaws to change the current voting system to require a "super majority" vote (two thirds plus one) if consensus cannot be reached on an MPO decision item/issue.
Fiscal Impact:	There are two levels of fiscal impact. The first is the "Discretionary" STP (Surface Transportation Program) Funds. The State splits its federally allocated STP funds with all MPOs and cities with populations over 5,000. For the past several years, Ashland has been eligible for over $100,000 a year in STP funds. Typically Council would authorize a fund exchange for these funds so that the dollars could go to a variety of City street projects. In the past these funds came directly to the City of Ashland to fund eligible projects (such as Sherman and Union Streets, and recently the Water Street Bridge). Now, as a part of a larger MPO, Ashland would compete internally for these funds. The MPO's current STP Funding Policy states that "...the STP dollars will be rotated through the MPO jurisdictions as appropriate..." This policy statement does not seem to be well defined and perhaps there should be specific criteria developed for worthy projects. Perhaps the State or FHWA has guidelines for the distribution of these funds and a standard set of criteria for project funding. Rotating project dollars does not provide a strong sense of project merit. Staff understands that the MPO has already allocated the next 6-10 years worth of STP dollars. If this were the case, then it would seem appropriate to allocate individual amounts to new cities joining the MPO for the same amount of time. In any event, STP allocations and funding levels for the new members' needs to be reviewed for better understanding and clarification. In addition, the MPO allocates 50% of its discretionary STP funds to the Rogue Valley Transit District. The total amount of discretionary funds has been $615,000 a year with half going to RVTD. Ashland pays RVTD $200,000 a year plus an additional $35,000-40,000 for the free ridership program. This will need to be discussed further as Ashland becomes a part of the MPO. In addition to the STP funds, the City of Ashland will be required to pay MPO membership dues to RVCOG. Currently the RVCOG charges membership dues dependent upon population. The 2001-02 dues were a total of $19,261 with Medford paying $8,465 and Jackson County paying $3,265. The remaining dues were split between RVTD, Central Point and Phoenix. It is anticipated that the City of Ashland would pay a similar amount as the County for the annual MPO membership service dues to the RVCOG. RVCOG is responsible to provide transportation planning, transportation project planning and implementation, transportation modeling with ODOT, public involvement and air quality conformity determination.
Background:	The 2000 census codified and subsequently redefined urban areas. As such, the existing "Medford" urbanized area grew and now extends to Ashland and Jacksonville. Our expanded urbanized area has grown to be 128,780 in population (2000 census figures). Based upon federal regulations, the new designation requires that the current Rogue Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RVMPO) expand it's boundaries to cover the entire area that is anticipated to become urbanized within the next 20 years. This allows transportation planning to be accomplished in total, and includes the air quality determinations for our area. It is the MPO's policy to develop continuing, cooperative and comprehensive transportation planning processes that consider all transportation modes that support the regional system. Formal designation of the revised boundaries and new MPO boundaries is recommended by the MPO Policy Committee, approved by the Governor then accepted by the Federal Highway Association (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Authority (FTA). By law we are required to have the boundary expanded by April 25, 2005. However funding decisions require us to participate sooner. The expansion of the MPO boundaries has been anticipated for the past several years. Even so, there are still many unknowns as the organization changes. The primary concerns stem from dollars and equality, which are very "normal" under the circumstances. Each agency will need to process the changes and feel comfortable that their individual needs are taken into account as these policies are rewritten. A map of the proposed boundary expansion and the recommended changes to the bylaws are attached.

Attachments (memo and maps) are available in PDf format.  Please click on the link below to view these documents on your computer:

RVMPO_Attachments.pdf (174.8KB)

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