8D Consent 2007 1217 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The five-member Advisory Board appointed by the San Leandro City Council includes two staff members from the City of San Leandro (the Engineering and Transportation Director and the Finance Director) along with three business representatives from businesses within the BID. The business members appointed to the Advisory Board for 2007-08 are John Dlugosh, Jay McMahon, and Dora Wong. The Advisory Board's duties include a review of the performance of the LINKS Shuttle for Fiscal Year 2006-07, a review of the budget for Fiscal Year 2007-08, and a recommendation for the Fiscal Year 2007-08 assessment for the BID. Over the past month, the Advisory Board met with City staff and the Executive Director of the San Leandro Transportation Management Organization (SLTMO) to complete a review of the LINKS Shuttle. The Advisory Board is pleased to present to the City Council the attached Fiscal Year 2007-08 Annual Report. The Annual Report includes a review of the current and planned operations for the LINKS, a review of the proposed BID assessment for Fiscal Year 2007-08, a review of the Fiscal Year 2006-07 expenditures, and a review of the recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2007-08. After an intensive study of the LINKS, the Advisory Board made several recommendations to continue operations and improve the financial performance of the shuttle. The following is a summary of those recommendations: 1. Maintain the Fiscal Year 2007-08 base fee assessment rate of $25.00 per business and increase the per-employee assessment rate to $11.24, up from $10.88. This per- employee assessment rate increase reflects an average (3.31 %) of the two prior years' Consumer Price Index increases. An increase in the per-employee assessment rate was not levied in Fiscal Year 2006-07. 2. The Advisory Board recommends that continued outreach and marketing is needed to keep the business community informed of the shuttle service. Therefore, the Executive Director shall continue to aggressively market the program to companies in the BID area. In addition to the approved LINKS marketing plan for 2008, the Advisory Board recommends that the busses used for the program be striped and decaled so they are easily identified as LINKS busses, and that aBID-area employee recruitment program be initiated to recruit new employees as riders of the LINKS. 3. The Executive Director shall continue to evaluate the LINKS route in terms of overall ridership efficiency, the placement of existing LINKS route stops, and the potential placement of new LINKS route stops. Additionally, the Executive Director shall examine the operational and economic feasibility of expanding LINKS services to the Merced Street, Williams Street, and Fairway Drive corridors in West San Leandro. 4. The Executive Director shall aggressively pursue grants for the shuttle program to reduce the funding obligation of the business community and the San Leandro Redevelopment Agency. Additionally, the Executive Director shall explore the pros and cons of LINKS becoming a public transit agency as well as the administrative requirements associated with applying for and receiving other state and/or federal subsidies for operation of the program.