Updates on Bus Fare Increases – TPC Decision Appealed.

It’s all in a day’s (not) work. Here’s what happened and the sequence of events, as near as I can tell!

11:45 – Mayor posts blog. (I’d link to it, but I can’t because it changes every day and there are no archives or dedicated pages for the posts.)

11:49 – We get the following from the Mayor’s Press Secretary four minutes later.

From: Strauch-Nelson, Rachel
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:49:06 AM
To: Strauch-Nelson, Rachel; Solomon, Brian; Webber, Robbie; Sanborn, Jed;’retrotech@gdinet.com’; ‘amanda@communitycar.com’; ‘Poulson, Gary’;’dhinz@forstereng.com’; ‘smccabe@bus.wisc.edu’; ‘hoag@wisc.edu’;’kmstreit@facstaff.wisc.edu’; ‘mmbergamini@facstaff.wisc.edu’; ALL ALDERS
Subject: Last Night’s TPC Action
Auto forwarded by a Rule

Please see the mayor’s most recent blog post below, with his thoughts on last night’s TPC action.

https://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/blog/

Been There, Done That

Last night the Transit & Parking Commission voted to raise fares to the equivalent of about half of what the Council and I budgeted for fare revenues. The TPC is revisiting the same set of policy choices I had back in the fall when I was putting my budget together, but they’re reaching different (and I think wrong) conclusions.

When I was putting together my budget in September I was faced with basically two choices. I could call for raising fares to $1.75 or $2.00. (Not raising fares at all was pretty much off the table because I didn’t want the deep service cuts that would come without a fare increase.) We called for information, debated the pros and cons… essentially struggled with it just as the TPC has been doing for the last several weeks.

My conclusion was (and still is) that the bigger increase was better because the smaller increase is the worst of both worlds: higher fares for, at best, the same service. By going to $2.00 we could actually increase service for the first time in years and provide a lot of other improvements. A smaller increase doesn’t get us much; it’s just running in place. And it sets us up for the possibility of another fare increase pretty soon with, again, no service expansions.

Moreover, the more ambitious fare increase makes possible a whole new and exciting program for low-income riders. Developed by community activist Lisa Subeck and others this proposal would actually dramatically lower the fare for 3,600 low income riders from the current $48 for a monthly pass to $27.50. The smaller fare increase won’t provide enough funding for that.

Finally, the TPC still left a Metro budget deficit of something around $210,000.

So, I appreciate what the TPC’s trying to do here, but the Council and I have been over the same ground, struggled with the same difficult choices, and reached different — and I think more sound — conclusions.

What happens next? Well, I’ll talk to Council members and others to see how they feel about it. Bringing this back to the Council is a possibility. Stay tuned.

Rachel Strauch-Nelson
Communications Director
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
608-266-4611

(Yeah – stay tuned for about, well, it took the city attorney about 8 minutes after that post to tell the clerk the Mayor was appealing – continue reading.)

12:25 – 40 minutes after the blog post, I hear from someone in a department other than the Mayors, City Attorney’s, Metro or Clerk’s offices, that the Mayor is appealing.

12:24 – Brenda tweets an update.

12:34 – Brenda tweets more details.

I sent out some emails updating people, made a few phones calls, did a little actual work, more calls, asked some questions, did some research, tried to do more work.

Somewhere in there I heard Lisa Subeck was now filing the appeal – which I thought was odd as I had just gotten done talking to her around 2:00 and she was on her way to a staff meeting and she didn’t mention it, so I asked the clerk to send me the email where she got the original request to put this on the agenda for Tuesday. Here’s what she sent me at 4:15, just minutes before the clerk’s office closed and the clerk had no paperwork for the appeal.

from Peters, Tammy
to Brenda Konkel
date Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 4:15 PM
subject FW: Legistar #13187; Bus fares
mailed-by cityofmadison.com

From: May, Michael
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:53 AM
To: Peters, Tammy
Cc: Harmon, Ramon; Hogg, Carolyn; Kamp, Charles
Subject: Legistar #13187; Bus fares

Tammy:

I’m told the Mayor will be appealing the decision of the TPC made last night, and this should appear under the Public Hearing items on the agenda for next week. Talk to Ray or Carolyn for more details.

MPMay
Madison City Attorney

4:52 – From the Mayor’s office

From: Harmon, Ramon
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:52:40 PM
To: Harmon, Ramon
Subject: FW: Metro Fare appeal
Auto forwarded by a Rule

Please see the attached communication from Lisa Subeck to Chuck Kamp re last night’s TPC action.

Sincerely,

Ray Harmon
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Room 403
Madison, WI 53703
608-266-4611
608-267-8671 (fax
_______________________________________
“Be the change that you want to see in the world”.
Gandhi-

From: lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net [mailto:lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:34 PM
To: Kamp, Charles
Cc: Mayor; Harmon, Ramon
Subject: Metro Fare appeal

Mr. Kamp,

Attached, please find my request to appeal the TPC decision regarding Metro fares. I faxed a copy to your office as well because I was having trouble earlier scanning and emailing the document.

Thank you,
Lisa Subeck

Of course, the attachment is scanned so hopefully you can read this:

5:22 – Lisa explains her actions to fellow advocates:

from lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net
to mabaaa@yahoogroups.com,madisonahaa@yahoogroups.com,Discuss PD ,4lakesgreens <4lakesgreens@yahoogroups.com>,bikies@danenet.org,
Brenda Konkel
date Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 5:22 PM
subject Re: [madisonahaa] Fwd: FW: Metro Fare appeal

Hello all,

A very quiick and basic explanation of my action:
There is nothing in the plan passed last night to mitigate the impact of the fare increase on low-income individuals. Without that, I don’t believe it’s an acceptable or reasonable compromise at all. Additionally, there is no guarantee or even intention outlined in the plan passed last night to implement a low-income fare program. So the way I see it, the fares were increased by a lesser but still significant amount versus the original $2 proposal with absolutely no relief to low-income workers. And should the fares increase again in future years, there is no plan in place to mitigate the long term impact on low-income residents. We had what I strongly believe to be a good plan that would have helped low-income Metro riders now and in the future. Had it been part of what TPC passed last night, I would not be asking the for an appeal of the decision.

–Lisa

6:42 I got a google alert where Cap Times reports on the “aggrieved citizen” posted at 6:33 and a resolution already sponsored by several alders (tho it doesn’t seems to be available anywhere at the moment so I can’t tell you who sponsored it.)

Busy day, used up a half day of vacation over it!

In my mind there are a few outstanding questions to be resolved, so, stay tuned! 🙂

Hint: See bolded sections.