Transportation Lifeline Committee Subcommittee of the Vashon Maury Island Community Council Formed to Address Ferry Service Issues Charter To preserve and improve service to Vashon-Maury Island through efficient water-to-road transportation. MINUTES 7:30 PM, Monday, December 27, 1999 --- Chautauqua Elementary School Introductions and Announcements Willem Maas, Chair, welcomed about 15 attendees and made several announcements. =85 Willem and Gardner will be meeting with Greg Nickels on January 12th with the goal of getting King County's participation in improving transportation to and from Vashon. =85 Arrangements are being made to charter a Vashon-only boat to go to Olympia. =85 Reminder that it is critical to keep the focus on 1. Lobbying efforts 2. Communications with legislators serving non-ferry dependent communities 3. Misinformation from Eastern Washington about the cost, service, other issues related to transportation in Puget Sound must be corrected as soon a= s possible. Notes From The Previous Meeting Moved, seconded and approved ---to accept the notes as submitted. Issue Work Groups The work group leads reported status. Substitute leads reported as noted. Chair Maas encouraged leads to identify four or five ke= y major points to focus in on where lobbying efforts will be most effective. Issue Lead &/or Reporting Budget, Efficiencies, History, Tim Roth 1. Overexpenditures -- overtime and how overtime is set up. Union proposed 10-hour days in their negotiations. Flex-time for employees --- Would be useful to work 10-hour days or a 4-6 hour shift 2. WMaas reported on discussions with WSF HR Manager -- on the inflexibility of the 8-hour schedule. HR Manager said that if it could be removed, it would save up to 30% in overtime expenses. Flexible work hours could make the change. 3. WMaas -- according to the National Ferry Operators website, most ferries have their capital contribution absorbed. However, the fare box covers the operating expenses. 4. TRoth -- discussed comparing the highway and bridge costs in terms of costs and equity. Efficiencies --- for example, modifying the Southworth run would make our runs more efficient. NOTE: Kitsap wants to go direct with their passenger only boats. 5. WMaas -- The State's recommendations by Booz Allen --- need to be reviewe= d carefully. What is needed is a truly independent audit. 6. TRoth -- Tourism -- intended cuts are coming during the highest tourism season. We would like to see them delay the cuts at least until after the end of the tourist season. ---Or go to the end of the biennium. Cutting th= e service now does not give adequate time for responses. 7. WMaas -- Booz Allen's report may be our best source --- we will use as many of the arguments as possible. 8. WMaas -- What are the three or four specific points that can be proven? Reliable points that we can use them in our discussions with the legislature? 9. TRoth -- The team will group and narrow all the information into three or four points. 10. TRoth -- There are a lot of turf battles that are built into the organizational structure. They have six silo organizations --- a vertical hierarchy with no horizontal reporting. There is no accommodation for a matrix reporting organization. [NOTE: WM & GP gave Tim a recently acquired org chart from WFS] 11. TimRoth -- WSF is extremely high in its engineering and design departmen= t staffing. 12. JJacobvitch -- commented that Governor Locke's recent proposal totally accepted Transportation Commission's figures --- all of Locke's givebacks were already included in the TC's recommendation. Media Development Willem Maas 1. WMaas -- Working with Beth DeGroen to develop key stories =85 Organizing the trip to Olympia --- an ideal media event 1. JSelman -- www.vashonaction.org would be a possible place to communicate with Islanders. And --- these meetings could be better attended. 2. Nota -- expressed concern about developing an active media strategy. Als= o . . . Nota will contact a Bainbridge resident who will volunteer her time 3. TimRoth -- will have John McCoy contact Willem about the media development. Passenger Only Boats Nota Lucas 1. Nota -- Group is in a waiting mode on the Origin/Destination survey results. State expects to have the report in March 2. Nota -- Rob Bordner said we should be able to get some of the informatio= n --- possibly the methodology, structure of the questionnaire? 3. Nota --We need to ask the PO passengers: Look at the cost factor --- asking them what they would be willing to pay 4. General Discussion among attendees regarding the proposed survey --- whether or not there should be hypothetical questions . . . discussion of the context of the survey --- reinforcement of the need to ask respondents to look at the real world --- and identify the most appropriate answer. 5. Concurred that this group would meet and develop the survey during the week of Jan 3 -- 7, 2000. 6. JSelman: Survey Elements: =85 Know the intent of the survey =85 Limit the scope of the survey =85 Seek greatest number of respondents =85 Make the survey attractive to answer. 7. WMaas --Bottom line -- we want the best possible information to give the legislators to make their decisions. 8. Nota -- Gary Dawson --- contact at Fauntleroy Community Group (Bruce Butterfield is the new president) Fauntleroy are going to go to City of Seattle lobbyists to work with legislators to discourage any more passenger= s going through West Seattle. 9. WMaas -- Reminder that all contacts should be discussed with WM and/or GP --- keeping the message consistent and clear. WM -- out of town from December 30th through January 7th. Legal Issues 1. NOTE: See last meeting notes. Stakeholder Outreach Cliff Goodman 1. Cliff -- Is coordinating with the union. Has nothing to report. When talking with the Ferry system, they pointed fingers at Coast Guard as the problem. However, investigations indicate that the Coast Guard is not the problem. An example is the five deck hands on the PO boat --- The Coast Guard does not require them. 2. WMaas -- the main issue for us to work on is the length of the shifts. 3. Cliff -- Their feedback is that the real issue is funding year to year --- Complaints ring true. Legislature is micro-managing the schedule 4. WMaas -- on METRO: we have a meeting with Greg Nickels on the 12th. 5. On the scheduling side, things have gotten better. METRO and WSF seem t= o be working together much better. 6. WMaas -- We need to be sure to distinguish between car ferries and the P.O. ferries. =85 Auto ferries are an extension of highways while =85 P.O. ferries are an extension of mass transit. 7. Comment: Maggie Femia is the chair of the METRO Transit Committee --- an= d the emphasis needs to be continuous mass transit to Vashon. The new P.O. ferries need to be operated and METRO could operate the P.O. boats Lobbying Willem Maas 1. Lobbyists -- Robin Apple ford, Tom Stars. Robin will go over the plan of attack in Olympia and WM can get names of Vashon people working in Olympia.= Will also go to employers of the lobbyists to increase the value of the message. Island Outreach Jake Jacobovitch Jake -- Chamber -- there is no board support right now. Ron and Laura are educating members of the Chamber. When they hear how tourism and their supply line(s) will be affected, they'll be very interested. Jake -- Ron says Chamber will be meeting to talk about whether or not to support these efforts. Jake -- We have the support of the High School and the VFW. Now, we need the Rotarians. Jake -- At the second stage, we will need to continue our communication wit= h the community council. We need to be involved in the development. Jake -- The economic and social disruption of the community --- secondary cause. They have no idea of how this will affect their bases Jake -- We need to quantify the economic impact of the cutbacks. We should be able to get some of this information from the Chamber. Laura S -- Merchants need to keep their shelves full now more than ever because of the competition from internet traffic and e-commerce. General Comments Letterhead --- would be nice if it had a person in the logo. The color of the font will be changed so it will show up better. Logo -- banners, letterhead, and posters --- all will have the same consistent message. Kermit and Jim will work together on these items. WMaas -- Between now and mid January, we need to gather specific, accurate information and have it prepared GPerry -- Given our discussion, we have a huge education problem. We have a huge number of people who do not believe it will happen. [Recording sec'y note 1/4/00: just spoke with a P.O. passenger who was sure that the WSF would not follow thru with the cutbacks. We talked=8Ashe expects to get an info sheet so she can write legislators=8A=8A.] Rotary will host a presentation. The discussion turned to a time line and what work is to be completed =85 A fact sheet for Islanders --- to be completed asap =85 Economic impact statement document =85 Myth Explosion Document (See the end of these notes for the complete, 12-point "Myth Explosion" list) =85 We need a broader list of myths and economic impact letter to Islanders. =85 TIMELINE: Questions and/or Answers -- no later than 1/7/00 =85 Week of 1/10/00 is the legislative activities week. The discussion moved to the relationship between the Transportation Commission and the legislature. Also the need to work with the Governor's Budget Mgmt Staff [Recording sec'y note 1/4/00: Locke's new Budget Director was just appointed this week --- correct?] Question was raised about who might have connection with the Governor's budget staff --- Marching Orders -- Each working group will prepare a list of salient, accurate facts or arguments to present at the next meeting of the committee AND to finalize the three documents: 1. Fact Sheet for Islanders to use in contacting legislators (NOTE: This should include the proposed schedule based on cutbacks) 2. Economic impact document 3. Myth Explosion Document --- expanded beyond the trial run (see below) Next Meeting Saturday, 1/8/00 --- 10 am, Vashon Library or To Be Advised by Gardner Perr= y Submitted: SharonLee Nicholson, Secretary Attested: Willem Maas, Chair Attendees: SharonLee Nicholson, Patti Snyder, Cliff Goodman, Tim Roth, Not= a Lucas, Michelle Morlan, John (Pete) Baum, Cathy Carr, Jay Becker, Ron Turner, Jake Jacobovitch, Julie Selman, Laura Snyder, Willem Maas, Gardner Perry, Mike Romanowski EXPLODING THE MYTH --- TRIAL RUN MYTH TRUTH Island dependent communities get a larger than proportionate per capita share of the State's Highways budgets. Vashon Island residents pay very little toward the cost of running the ferries. The passenger only ferry is a bottomless pit Vashon residents could go back to the mainland and live there. Under I-695, ferries get cut only as much proportionately as other parts of the State budget There is no way that ferries can ever generate enough revenue to equalize the State contribution to each legislative district. All they are doing is buying new boats at a ridiculous cost. Ferries are just not a part of the State's responsibility and should be eliminated. Vashon Island is a place for the hippies and playboy rich. Vashon does not contribute a cent to the State's highway budget. Ferries across the country are not a part of public budgets. Ferries across the country don't get subsidies from Federal or State governments.