Transportation Planning Organization Meeting - Apr 06, 2026

of the board of directors of the Gainesville Alachua County Transportation Planning Organization commonly called the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization, MTPO. Today we're going to, the first on the agenda is public comments. I think we're going to run this first, is that right, correct? All right, and then we'll get to everything else. Do we have any members of the public who would like to give us public comment early in the meeting as opposed to in the individual items? I do not see any, all right. I do not have any announcements outside of what we'll be talking about on the individual items. So, all right, next up, roll call and confirmation of quorum.

Present.

Here.

Here.

Mr. Wheeler. Here. Mr. Chestnut.

Here. Here.

Mr. Duncan Walker. Here. Mr. Book.

Here.

Mr. Eastman. Here. Mr. Sinskip-Morchess. Here. Mr. Engel.

Here.

Mr. Councilmember Taylor. Here. Ms. Sertin. Here. Ms. Dixon. Here. And Ms. Brown. Do we have a quorum?

The director right there. Move approval of the agenda. Second.

All right, any comments about the agenda?

I'd like to add to the agenda of buying a gavel for our show.

We may have to borrow one.

Seeing none of the further questions, all those in favor say aye. Aye. And those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Nick, do we have approval of the minutes from, I believe, our last meeting, yes, our 3-2-26 meeting. So moved. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Commissioner Book?

I just, if there was a couple of little scrivenous things, and I'll be able to just some thawing, and I'll pass those on the executive director, a couple of the members who spoke. Okay, is there any other conversation about the minutes?

All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Commissioner Book, for those scrivenous errors. All right, first action item is executive director's employment contract. Did everyone have a chance to look at the backup? Okay. So this has gone back and forth between me as chair and Director Whitfield with county HR as our help, is what I'll say, as we are a semi-independent leaning on the county. You will see that there are, in the backup, there are two different contracts. The one dated, let me see if I can get this right, I think it's the first one, and it's the most recent, where we ended, I ended about, I guess now, a week or maybe 10 days ago with county HR with what was the final offer. This offer, to my knowledge, has not been agreed on verbally or written by Director Whitfield. In this backup, there are some, let me see how it's phrased, exec director negotiations request. That was not added to the minutes by me. That is added by staff. Or not, excuse me, not added to backup, not added to this item. At my request, to my knowledge, not by any of our requests of any of our board members, but by staff. So, first of all, does anybody on the board have any specific questions that Commissioner offered?

I had a couple of conversations with Director Whitfield about the residence requirement. Is that still of concern?

Director? Last time you and I spoke, I was able to find a home in Gainesville. Oh, nice. So, I will be relatively close to downtown.

Okay. You didn't get the outer area?

I did not get the bigger lot for my parents that I wanted, but this one is a pretty good sign.

I was sympathetic to that request, since I couldn't find a place to live in a few years that I could afford. So, I just hope to do that. Okay. That's my only question.

All right. Any other questions about how this has gone so far? Commissioner Book?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I just had a couple of questions about the contractual. As it relates to the Executive Direction Go-Chain request, I think 12 weeks is sufficient. And I think staff probably proposed that as both to 20. We're strongly about it. It's been 12 weeks to be a time. Mr. Rest, Commissioner Alford, you're just a six-month residence. And then one section I thought was kind of unusual was page 8, section 12 on suspension. I hope we'll never have to use this on any staff member ever, especially the Executive Director. But what this one says is that if you are going to suspend somebody with full pay and benefits, you give them 10 days notice. I've never heard of it. And it was in the field. I don't know if this came from county staff. Normally, if you're in a position where you have to suspend somebody with pay, you don't tell them, by the way, you're going to be suspended in two weeks. You start then. That's a very unusual. And that was just not familiar. I thought that one probably should not be on that. Spending someone with pay, you have the ability to direct terms and conditions of employment. That one struck me as if nobody knows if it's a standard.

In general, we started with kind of the county's framework for how they do their top executive employees. That's where we started, mostly as a framework. And you'll see some of this obviously changed. The county does not offer 12 weeks. The county starts at a different negotiated leave rate. We arrived at something a little different. So some of this was a bit of a negotiation. Commissioner Cornell.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I understand it, the two items that we haven't yet agreed on is the severance. We had offered 20 weeks. But what's in there is 12, but you would like 20 weeks. And then the car allowance, we had offered 400. You wanted 600. You compromised at 450.

Correct.

Those are the only two remaining items.

The last one is the relocation assistance runs for three months, but the time for me to actually move runs for six months. So I'm just asking for the relocation assistance to align with the moving, because it's going to take me another couple months to close.

Okay. Yeah. So what did we offer when we had – what did HR offer when we –

So what happened was when I was offered the position, I had an email correspondence with Commissioner Eastman. We talked about the pain and whether or not I would accept the job. There was no negotiation, really, because I didn't realize that a contract needed to happen until I was already on board. So my first draft that I received from the county was January 27th, I think it was. And then I provided comments back with my request to the county attorney on February 6th. And then I didn't really speak with the attorney. Then HR reached out with a very – with the – the original proposal was to drop it from 20 weeks to 10 weeks. And then the car allowance was, I believe, 400 at the time. And so we had – I had spoke with her and the county attorney, and she said she would talk to the chair, and then they spoke. And then there was no more communication until this most recent time, which was last – the week before last. And then I decided to go ahead and just bring this conversation here, because I believe DLT needs to have a copy of the contract as part of their paperwork. So we didn't have the luxury of waiting anymore for any more back and forth.

So I don't anticipate having to worry about the severance at all, but I'm okay with the 20 weeks, just so that you all hear me. I'm okay with the 450, and I'm okay with the 65. I'm happy to make that motion after you've taken all comments.

School board member, certainly.

Thank you. Before we move to the motion, I'm with Commissioner Book on, I think, that suspension paragraph. We should look at changing that, because if you're going to – if there's – if something arises to the nature where you have to suspend someone, it defeats the part of giving someone 10 days' notice and keeping them on the job if it's something. So I think that needs to be addressed or removed. Where did the 12 weeks of severance come from? How did it go from 20 to 12 is what I'm trying to ask. I mean, I don't understand.

So it's – that it wasn't 12 originally. It's – I believe the original was at 10. It was 20. It was –

The offer 20.

The first time I received the contract, it was the contract that Ms. Moss received from County HR, I believe, and that was at 20.

I think that – yeah, or I'm going to ask County HR to – because they were the ones who helped walk through this. I know that at some point we were – in my negotiations, the city – what the county offers, I specifically asked what the county offers there. Is it just – I'm forgetting which employees are included in that. In the city, we talk about our five charters.

Excuse me, Chair Willits. Chair Willits, can you hear me? This is Mark Sexton. Yes. I am so sorry to break in, but I wanted to let you all know, and particularly the people watching, that we are experiencing some technical difficulties. We had some work done last week in the room, so we've had some minor sound issues that it looks like we're on top of, but the main thing is our cameras are not responding like they normally will. So folks that are watching this are used to seeing close-ups of people who are talking. We are having to do long shots for this meeting. We can still hear you. We're still working on it. There are a few presets that we can still use, so wherever we can, we will try to focus on whoever's talking. But for the folks at home, we just want to let you know if it looks odd, it's because it is odd right now. We're struggling with it. They'll still be able to hear you. It may be tough figuring out who's talking when, but I just wanted to let you all know that, and more particularly the people watching and listening, know that. Thank you, and I apologize for the interruption.

Thank you, Mr. Sexton. I will try to make sure, when acknowledging the speakers, county staff is going to speak to us now.

Corbin Hanson with the county attorney's office. Just a quick point of clarification. There was never an offer of 20 weeks. The offer letter said salary of, I think, $140. It implied or indicated county benefits, and there was one other term in there, the moving expenses, $2,000 in moving expenses. Once that offer was accepted, there was a request for a contract from Ms. Whitfield. At that point, a template was sent that was a previous template used in a different category, and that, I believe, may have had the 20 weeks, and that's where the confusion came.

That is correct.

That was not an offer, so it's not coming. No one went from 20 to 12.

What was that category for the county? What level?

That was not a county. That was for actually a children's trust director. It was a template we'd used for the children's trust. It wasn't a county. And what did the children's trust director get? I don't know. That was an old one for the first director, so I didn't negotiate the second one. Got it. Thank you.

All right.

So, just to clarify, our initial offer was 10 weeks, and we've gone up to 12 weeks, our initial offer on?

And when we say our, that is my initial starting point when I worked with county HR and say, all right, what are we looking at? Draft, look at, match it up to, you know, some sort of something in between what city, county does. Yes. And since I'm more familiar with those two, and so when we say offer, that first offer is what I ask county staff to forward to director Rootfield. So, we started at 10. So, where that 10 comes from is largely that first offer, and then, you know, the back and forth. All right. Thank you, Heather. I wasn't done with it. All right. And we still have a board member.

So, for me, I would lean towards the 10 weeks simply because I think it's unrealistic for this board to try to meet and pay a severance of the children's trust. And thank you for that, since that was it, because there's two different taxing bodies, two different revenue streams, and I think the budget of being able to pay a severance of 20 weeks would put a burden on the MTPO. So, I'm in favor. I support the 10 weeks. Or 10 or 12.

I'm going to say 12 is where I last left.

Okay.

So, I can support that over 20.

I'm going to do Commissioner Alford and then Commissioner Chestnut.

Well, I just wanted to note that, you know, no matter what the standard is, all of these things are negotiable for folks at this level of, there's not really a standard. These are negotiable things, and I'm with Commissioner Cornell. All right.

Commissioner Chestnut.

So, what is the standard for county administrators? There's upper level, upper level administrators. What would your county manager? I think the attorney and manager get 20. Correct me if I'm wrong. What our charter officers get?

Hold up. Does anyone know? Ms. Brown?

You're going to look it up. Good afternoon. I care Brown, interpretation planning manager with DOT. So, the initial conversation began when I reached out to Todd Hutchison about the equivalence of the executive director position. I was told that it was the county attorney and county manager was the standard, and they shared that the severance then was 20 weeks, and were we willing to reimburse for that? I said, is that the standard policy, the standard county policy? And I was told yes. I said, well, we're willing to reimburse for anything that is currently in place of a parole that reports directly to a board. So, up until now, we have been acting in part, meaning we've been paying and reimbursing for travel expenses, hotel expenses, under the impression that this is the same benefits that are afforded to any candidate seeking to fill a role, such as county attorney and or county manager. This is the first time I'm hearing about this role being tied to a template of a children's trust position. I was under this impression that this role was similar to and equivalent to your county attorney and county manager. This is a reimbursement role, so meaning the county would essentially pay for its severance, but it is reimbursed with PL. We are only seeking, you know, from what I understand, you all were making this advertisement very attractive to seeking far and wide beyond the state of Florida. So, we had a lot of great candidates, and we, you guys interviewed great candidates, and we, up until that point, we were under the impression that you all were seeking of similar position. And I would like to mention, if you guys are going to deviate from that standard policy, then it needs to be a different conversation and being reimbursed with local funds, not PL funds, because at that point, we're talking about an MPO policy, not a county policy. You guys are a leaning agency, independent leaning agency. So, we are leaning on your existing county policies, your existing roles of position that are equivalent to the executive director's position. If you guys are going to set an MPO policy and reimbursement, then that's a different conversation, and we will have to look at that in terms of standardizing in your bylaws or in another format that is seen to be local funds that will not be reimbursed with your PL. So, yes.

Okay. Commissioner Chester.

So, I would suggest that we stay with the matching the county policy as well as the city policy, which I just learned is 20 weeks as well.

So, I have Engel next, if I can continue. Commissioner Engel.

I have fallen very close with the last few comments, and that it sounds like reimbursement is going to be much easier if we stick with the 20 weeks. If someone sent me a template of a contract and it said 20 weeks in it, I think I would certainly could see where I would think that was an offer. So, it seems much simpler to kind of keep with us and go forward. I think there's enough work there for –

Is there someone else?

I just had a quick question.

No, I'm going to get – Commissioner Wheeler. Okay.

Wheeler. Go ahead. Okay. I'm trying to understand what you just said in terms of us changing. I mean, if this is the direction that we're going, would you clarify what you mean in terms of us having to change something in order to make that fit? Yes.

If you guys are – anything that's offered to the county manager and county attorney, that's severance, relocation expenses, any other allowances, it should align. They should practically match. Anything beyond it, that could be negotiated but paid with local funds. Anything less than, we will see that as not following your standard policy. And then that – then you will have to pay for coming from your local funds and or county funds, but it will not be reimbursed with federal funds. Do you see any problem with that? No. I mean, from the – us having conversations with county staff, we had come to terms with that agreement. That was already established, that before you all seek candidacy, before you all seek to affirm, we agreed on these costs and we were aware because the county shared copies with me of an existing severance package that's offered to the county attorney and county manager because I asked if what role in the county is equivalent that reports directly to a board, any other position, and I was told these were the only two positions that are in kind.

Okay, so there's nothing that we would need to do that's going to hold this up?

No, and we definitely need to be under contract soon. Your new UPWP starts July 1st, so your 26, 28 UPWP starts. And currently, it seems like we're still in limbo. We need to have your ED under contract as soon as possible.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Cornell.

All right, so I would move that we modify the draft to include severance of 20 weeks, car allowance of $450, moving expenses of $2,000 up to six months, and that the signature page be changed, that the vice chair is Adrian Hayes Santos.

Second. And, Mr. Chair, not to confuse the point too much, Heather can correct me if I'm wrong, the 20 weeks is not part of a county policy. The position is equivalent in the sense that it's a direct report to a board, but that 20 weeks is a negotiable term of the county, the same as kind of where we started in this. It's not tied to a specific.

So it's not a policy. It's just that by chance it's been negotiated recently for existing or recent levels of the county. Okay. And that's why in this conversation, to be clear, I was never told about a 20 thing from the Department of Transportation in 20 a week. I started with that idea of 10 and then negotiated 12.

Because it's not tied to a specific policy.

Because it's not tied to a specific policy. So that's why county HR, in working with, we arrived, I got to, we back and forth, talks of 8, 10, get to 12.

Heather Ockman, assistant county manager. That is true. And I also want to say something about the reimbursement. That is tied to a policy. Our policy is within three months of reimbursement. I mean, that's a county policy. I think you can do what you want, but I just want to be clear about that. That is tied to a policy.

Right. I do think part of the whole reimbursement is that we don't have as much funds naturally in a pool that we can spend from. Is that about right, Ms. Whitfield, our PL versus our local funds? We don't have as much using the PL funds are, I don't want to say more flexible. It's a much bigger pool for us to then be.

Well, the position, I would have surmised that anything relative to the position would have to come from PL because there's just not enough currently in the local at $24,000.

Okay. In a different world with much more local funds, this one particular issue is something that probably wouldn't come up, I would say. With much more local funds, but that's not the situation we're in currently.

So the contract is, for right now, is all PL dollars. Some MPOs have their contracts being renewed as a stamp annually, some are two years. I think this one's just written that it just goes on until termination or resignation and whatnot.

Okay. All right. So the motion on the floor, what I'm hearing, is that I would go forward, we would give final draft, but that we would go with, under Section 4, termination severance, that it would be the 30-day notice of termination and lump sum severance payment of 20 weeks. Then there's under Section 7, other benefits for vehicle allowance. It would be Executive Director requesting $450, and Subsection F, moving expenses, moving it to six months, partially just because of the time frame. Ms. Whitfield has been, Director Whitfield has been working without this contract since she came in January, correct? January, is that right? January. Right. So we're now past the three months. So that's the current motion. Are there any questions about the motion of the rest of the contracting thing? Commissioner Alford?

Well, there are a couple of concerns voiced about the suspension rule. Do we have any county background on that? That did seem odd to me as well.

Sorry to have you get back up, Ms. Ackman, if you have some background.

She didn't have any issue with what's in there.

Yeah, I was going to say, I don't remember that being part of our conversation originally at any point.

She might not have an issue with that, but we might. Yeah, no, I don't know why that's like that, actually. So I do not have any background on why that's like that. I do agree that it's a bit of a strange rule. So, I mean, you could, again, this contract was created. This is not a standard contract. This was for a different agency. I don't even know what the county manager's contract looks like. This was not, this is not the county manager's contract, nor the county attorney's contract. This was created for the Children's Trust. So I don't know what was negotiated there or why.

Okay, well, we are, we're learning, we're learning as a go, as we're in this brave new world. School board member, certain.

So, Commissioner Cornell, would you be amenable to removing that suspension thing there? Because with the reference back, going back to SeaTac, I don't know if you'll recall the issues we have had with that first ED. And it was around this particular paragraph. So I think. What paragraph were you thinking? Page 8. Page 8.

Yeah. Actually, it's on the screen as well. Mr. Chair.

Mayor, an increase to be, okay, so the MCMA suspend the executive director with full pay and benefits at any time during the term of employment by affirmative vote of a majority of the MCMA, provided, however, that the executive director shall have been given a written notice, full pay and benefits at least 10 days. And so you didn't have a problem with that, and so what's the issue with y'all?

Well, if you put somebody on suspension, usually there's a reason for it, and usually that reason would be that you don't want them in that job. And so why would you continue to have them operate in that job for an additional 10 days? Do you see the point?

If you don't, do you care if we strike that paragraph? I don't care either. I don't see that.

It might be that you just keep the paragraph and remove the days and just make it effective from whatever the notice is.

That is what I'm saying, yeah. Take out the date.

Yes, I would make that change. Yeah.

Okay, so the maker of the motion, we would...

Yes. Yeah, so just make it effective immediately, not 10 days.

Okay, who seconded that? I did. Okay, so are you okay with that? I'm done.

And you're okay with that. It's not going to happen. All right. Okay.

Okay.

All right. Is there any... Oh, I'm sorry, there's... Commissioner Eastman. Commissioner Eastman.

I don't want to add any more complications to this, except that Ms. Whitfield did mention something that I think is useful for these... They do it at the school board, but most of our other governments don't, which is that there tends to be a renewal period that you're reviewing the contract, then you make an active, affirmative decision to decide whether that person will continue for, whether it's a year or two-year period, as opposed to how we do it now, which is sort of annual performance reviews that you decide whether you want to give merit increases, that sort of thing. I've always liked that better. I think it's good to have people give a stamp of approval to executive directors as they're going forward and just to have the opportunity to just take an affirmative vote up or down on that.

Yeah, we have an annual performance review.

We have an annual performance review, not necessarily an approval. Like, there's not a set time period where the contract ends and then is renewed at that point in case we wanted to, I don't know, renegotiate terms of the contract, whether you want to choose to not renew the contract, whatever you want to do with that. Like I said, the school board does that. The county does not. The city does not. I've always thought it was a smart way to do executive directors, you know, chance to renegotiate anything that's in here or any opportunity of someone. And a lot of times what happens is you have to take an affirmative decision to let someone go. And that is, I think, a harder bar sometimes than just choosing to vote up for, you know, that we want this person to continue or vote down that you want the person to not continue.

You like the way we have it in here.

I do not like the way we have it in here.

Yeah, I like the way we have it in here because if you insert what you just said, I believe you create uncertainty at the executive director that, okay, is this going to be a year where I get a down vote? And I like that if you're heading towards a down vote, that should be reflected in your annual performance evaluation. And so at least that gives you that next year to figure that out before it gets to a down vote. That's why I like the way we do it at this county. You do it at the city and how it works.

Who was next over here? Is it Ingle? No. School board member of certain? I can't remember. Okay. Can I ask school board member of certain the experience with the one-year up or down approval?

Well, my organization has been going through a lot of, yeah. Up and down. So, I have. So, even outside of the thing, but there is in the contract, it is like there's a evaluation date and at that time it could be made, you know, changes in there. So, but I do think we should have an evaluation date. She should know when her performance will be evaluated. That shouldn't just be left up in the air, but, you know.

It's annual. It's annual.

It's in there. It's annual. Okay. All right. Either questions, comments from this board or from any of the county staff, FDOT staff, or TPO staff, because I know this is multiple. We get here together. All right. Members of the public, does anyone have a comment they would like to make their three minutes? I don't see any. All right. So, contract is just straight up and down. Correct. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Nay. Mark me as a nay. Motion passes.

A bunch to one.

A bunch to one. All right. Our next item is 7.2 action item, rebranding and website update, and I will let the staff take it from here.

Staff reporter, Robert, just go to the presentation. Isn't she going to run up? Yeah. I added a link. Well, maybe if she just wants to hop in.

Victoria, can you hear us?

Hi, folks.

I'm here. I can barely hear you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and share. Okay. And just give me a holler if you can't see or hear something. We can hear you okay. Okay. Great. Can you see the screen? Yes. Yes, ma'am. Okay, great. Thank you for having me join you. I'm Victoria Pennington. I'm actually the longtime marketing consultant for the North Florida TPO, and I was asked to help you with your new website, and we sort of added branding as well. So, we're going to present some of those findings and get your feedback. This is the original logo when we arrived that you had from your process to becoming an independent organization. So, we started there, and then we looked at all the other MPOs in the state to see the direction of those particular logos. From that, we also looked at the logos within your area that are used by your chamber or individual cities and came up with some ideas. We also sought guidance from different aspects of your history, what Gainesville and Alachua County are known for, obviously, the Native American influence, the beautiful sort of flora and fauna, and, of course, the university and football. So, from that, this is the first pass, your logo, for the Gainesville and Alachua County Transportation Planning Organization. And, you see, we've sort of riffed on the colors of the blues and orange and gold, and it reflects the more urban aspects as well as the natural aspects of the trees and the grasses. So, that's one option. And, again, Anak and Allison and our team have been iterating different versions of this throughout, and we're bringing you what we think are the top finalists for that process. This shows you two different applications of that logo. The initial one on the right with the circular copy. You can also use it with the copy off to the side. This would be two different applications of the same logo that you could have stopped. Here we have it as an example on a banner and what it would look like on a business card. Okay, here's another option. And one of the other iterations that we can explore if you decide that this is a priority is wrapping the Alachua County underneath the Gainesville. So, you could use just the left side as Gainesville and Alachua County TPO without the copy on the right. So, that would be another option. This is a little bit more of a clean line representation. Here you see it on the white and taupe backgrounds. Here would be applications again and the banner and the business card. Now, this is the wild card. You always have to throw in a wild card. This is an ultra-modern iteration showing still sort of the mobility and movement, but in a very modern application. And so, this in summary are the three finalists, as it were. Number one, with showing the skyline as well as the natural areas. Number two, more of a simple modern application. And number three, sort of a little bit more, what I would describe as fashion forward, options of the three. So, Anak, I'm going to let you take it away for discussion and voting, or Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Victoria.

Thank you so much, Victoria. Commissioner Alford.

I like the first one, but the colors really throw me. That's an orange that I associate with Tennessee, not with the Gators. And, I don't know, it just kind of looks like dated colors from the 1980s to me. I like the colors better of number three, but I like the design of number one.

Victoria, can you confirm that those oranges and yellows are not Tennessee, Texas, or Auburn?

No, they match. They actually match no college or professional teams. And, the muted, and I agree, you're absolutely right that the colors are muted. And, that was keeping, if we go back to looking at the photography that we reviewed, with more of that nature, stylized color palette.

We did look at it with other colors.

And, again, any of these, we can tweak the colors however you'd like. But, that was more of the theme at being subdued with that natural kind of a look.

Okay, thank you, Victoria. Commissioner Wheeler?

I have the same problem with the colors, too, because we are a green community. And, often, we use the teal and the lime greens together. I just feel like that, you know, if we go closer to the color scheme of what our nature and culture looks like, that it would, we could identify with it a little easier. I like the first one. Is that number one to the right? Is that the one that's more contained? Yes. Okay, the one that's more contained. I kind of like that one. Are you hearing, Mary, that you like the number one with the letters out to the side?

Well, those are both options of the same idea.

Oh, I see.

We can use both in a style guide.

I see. I see, yeah. No, I think the issue is the color scheme at this point. You know, I don't have as much trouble with the way it's laid out. But the color scheme and the one at the bottom, I appreciate the forward thinking on it. But it kind of looks like a Tide box, you know, or, you know, that's the way I see it.

Victoria, Commissioner Wheeler is a retired art teacher, correct?

I am, I am. I'm sorry.

Yes, I am. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you want an application that's going to work in black and white or reverse. So let's say you're embroidering it on a shirt or something, and it's a navy shirt and all the designs in white. Or it's on a white shirt and all the designs in black. Or this, this is a dark navy color that we're using. So you need a design that's going to work without any color and with color.

Well, maybe you could reverse the white into the darker color and let the letters be light if you're going to be around, you know, on the first one up at the top. You know, reverse the color scheme a bit. I don't know. I just, and I agree, I understand, too, that the more colors you use, the more expensive it is.

And you really, just for branding, want to stick with three colors and variations on those colors. Right, I got it. But you really don't want more than three. I got it.

Okay, well, my concern is the color.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Next, I've got Mayor Ward.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate all the designs. It's an interesting thing to talk about. I like the bottom one. I do. I think it's a little bit different, and I think it sets us a little bit apart. Like it or not, when people think about Gainesville and Lachua County, they think orange and blue. And if we want to use this as sort of shorthand for who we are, well, that one gets us there. I have concerns about the top one because that's not our skyline, such as we have a skyline. That's absolutely not us. Maybe as a compromise, the middle one is the right one with maybe different colors in the thing. It's simple. It abrogers better if you want to talk about that because both the top and the bottom are going to have issues with reproduction for shirts or anything like that. Not that that really ought to be our concern, but the simple is often better. But I prefer the bottom one. I don't like the top one because that's not our skyline, and I'm not sure those are our weeds or cattails or whatever they are either. All right.

Commissioner Chestnut.

Do you have other iterations you can show us, other color schemes? I think you mentioned that you had others.

Victoria, I believe when we first met, there was one that is number one that has the lime green and blue. Do you still have that one available to me?

Can you get right up on your microphone because I can't tell that that's your voice, but I can't hear what you're saying.

When we met with Greg before he had to step out, there was one that's number one, but it had the green and the blue and the green.

Yes. Do you have that one that you could show? Not handy. I would have to dig back through the vials. But, yeah, we had greens in there, so we could certainly incorporate green back in.

Okay. Commissioner Chestnut, is that?

Well, one just looks kind of sad to me. Yeah, the colors. I guess. It's kind of sad. I think if we could take the colors from number three and put them in number one and keep the design of number one, that might work. But we could pick it through the skyline. All right. Yeah.

All right. Commissioner Duncan Walker. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I do like number one. And I like, too, the rethinking the colors. And the reason I say that is because if you are the average person and you're looking at this roadway and we want people to understand that this is truly about transportation, you know, I think, what's your first impression? Boom, when your eye first sees it before you read any words. So our bike lanes are green. I'd like to see some incorporation of green. I don't like the bottom one. I think it's important for us to make a distinction between who this organization is and be very clear to the community that it's not the University of Florida. So I want it to stand alone. I want it to be very clear that while they are a part of this community, that's not who it is. And I think the color scheme will help individuals when they see this to be clear about that. This guideline, Mr. Mayor, I hear you on that. We have a couple of structures in this city that are pretty prominent that we actually have featured on some of our collateral materials that perhaps staff could take a look at, whether it's the Segal Building or whatever, in incorporating that, the Hippodrome. Yeah, and maybe even some county buildings. I don't know how you do that. I don't want to cobble that together here at the table. But I think that there are some structures, some buildings that are within both the city and the county portfolio that you might be able to take a look at. I know you're dealing with a small space, but perhaps there's a way that you can incorporate that and take us away from the skyline that does not belong to us. I like the cattails. I like them because I immediately go to Noonan's Lake. That's just where it takes me. But if there's something else, obviously, that my colleagues would like to see in terms of the nature, but I think that's a very easy way for this logo to speak to who we are as a beautiful place that has amazing and outstanding nature preserves. So if you can think of another way to do that, if you all would like to see something else besides the cattails, but they didn't bother me. The things that stood out for me were the colors. And to be honest, when you look at a logo, how the average person receives it and perceives it right off the go is something that I find very important. This is easy to read. You know exactly what it is. For me, I would like to just see the addition of the green for the bike lane and change that skyline. But number one is my choice.

All right. Now I have Cornell, then Eastman, and then I'll say something. And then Cornell.

Okay, so I'll start my comments by saying this is coming from a numbers guy, so I'm not Mary Helen. Listen to Mary Helen before you listen to me on this. I like one. I think it looks like the prairie looking over the road into the city, so I like that. I would change the colors to be green and blue, sky and bike path, or sky and plants. And I would change the city to not make it look like Jacksonville, but maybe put the stadium and maybe the Segal Building, and I think that gets Gainesville. Those are two minor changes that would – so when someone sees a stadium in the background, you know, that kind of gets you there. So I like one with those changes. All right. Next. Eastman.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with Desmond Duncan Walker in that it's – I mean, you just want to go with the – I think with all these things, you just kind of want to go with what your gut tells you on a lot of it. I liked number one when I first saw it. I like that it's serif, so it's easy to read. Like, it doesn't have – but it's also – I don't know. The font is sort of rounded out. It definitely – it has kind of a classic feel to it. I like the colors even. And I think you were – she was right that the muted colors are important when you're trying to give a nature feel to it. We can certainly change the colors, but I don't see orange and yellow as most branding, which I think is neat. Like, they're two very similar colors, and so I thought they looked that way. As you're creating the skyline, I believe the city of Gainesville has shape files that we have internally that we use for a lot of our stuff that has a lot of our famous buildings that could be easily plopped into there if that's helpful to the designer at all or that – just to give some kind of a basic on there – a basic starting point on there. But, yeah, I mean, I agree with Commissioner Cornell. It looks like – kind of reminds me of when you're going up on Payne's Prairie and you're going to that little section there and you kind of see Ben Hill Griffin Stadium out there and the lights are coming from the city of Gainesville. Gainesville feels like a bigger city than it is in that particular spot. I always thought that was a fun little spot to stop off on. I don't know. Yeah, so I like that one. I'll be comfortable with color changes. Color changes are easy. You just press a button in Illustrator and you change a color. But I think that keeping it muted would be important and just having it feel good when you see it as opposed to – it's easy to think of ideas as to what the colors could be based on, well, this could be that. But, like, at the end of the day, you just – I trust the designers to kind of put some ideas in there and feel it because that's the most important thing in there. So, yeah, like number one, though. Number two is very utilitarian. I mean, it's what you would give any kind of – that seems to me like the standard government thing. You would put a – a sans-serif font just like that one with a little logo in the O. That's very straightforward. That's very easy. But I think I prefer number one myself.

All right. Councilwoman Taylor.

Thank you. The top one is – well, it looks like you guys' eyes are looking at number one over on this side. I like everything about it, of course, with the color changes. But there was one that you presented before, and if it's about transportation, it had the people on the bikes that were on the side. You had an airplane that was up in the air. So if it's about transportation as well, you need to add the person on the bike. You need to put something – a car or something. And that actually does catch your eye. And as she said, the first thing that I look at when I grab a card, usually if I don't look at the name, I'm looking at the logo that you have on it. And I really don't have to think about the name because, oh, yeah, this is such-and-such, and I know what it is. So, yes, maybe add the people back on the bike and put a car in there. And because we have someone that represents the airport as well, and it is transportation authority, add an airplane.

All right. Thank you. I'm going to – I'm going to award Nick's, but I'm going to first give my response. I first – the number one looks fine to me. It looks very professional. The first thing that came to mind was Jacksonville, though, just because their TPO is older and more established. And so I kind of like that idea. Sorry. This is, you know –

Can we get Jacksonville's money?

Yeah. You know, it looks very professional. I really like it. I was worried about the colors of the yellow and the orange similarly. To me, it looks like canola oil and – Well, no, no. The flowers from – not canola oil, but the canola plant. If you've ever seen it in bloom, that second yellow, that yellow is exactly what it is. So we don't quite have waving fields of wheat in this county exactly, but that's what I got out of it. I like number three for that. It is very fresh. It is very modern. I do like it. And I like both the argument of orange and blue being kind of, you know, topical here, but also if we want to be away from it. So I really like one and two, no matter what, which way. All right. Mayor Ward and then Chestnut.

So it is just interesting to me that they were using, what, 13 voting representatives to design a logo. That is not a path to success, I'll promise you. So it's – I'm open to any of them, and honestly, it's the logo. And I don't dislike the one that we currently use. It's fine. What we do with the organization is more important than what we're going to put on Letterhead because that's where most of the time this is going to be seen is on Letterhead and on a few business cards. I am very much a – I see things very much through a communications background, but I don't want to spend too much more time and certainly more money, any money, on this. This is not, I don't think, our highest priority.

All right. Commissioner Chestnut.

Well, if we could spend just a little bit more time. I'd like to see the ones that she showed at first from other MPOs.

Can you hear that, Victoria?

Yep.

Back to the – everybody.

That one? Yeah, that one. Just wanted to look at those. Thank you.

There's the blue and green.

Thank you for letting us look at this for a little while and feel it.

Oh, for sure.

Commissioner Engel, you had a comment?

Yeah.

I'm done. I just wanted to see those again.

Sure. I would say, in general, I agree with Mayor Ward and that I don't know that we need to beat, like, an entire logo out of it. On the whole, I do like the first logo. I kind of like the colors. They're a little bit retro, but, I mean, it reminds me, like, the three colored lines you would see on, like, the side of a 1970s Chevy van. The number three just kind of looked like you were driving down Sabador-Dali Highway into chaos. And that threw me off a little bit more. Snamp against the arts, man. So, I would say, in general, I'm number one, but I would like, you know, it to be a little less Jacksonville-y and see if we couldn't pull some Gainesville stuff into it. But, again, I don't know that we all need to hammer out the exact details of which colors do you use?

Sure. Director Whitfield.

Yes, so staff makes a recommendation for number one, so it'll be the both sides, the light side and the dark side on the style guide. And I wanted to just bring it to the board because I felt like it's important that you guys have input into it. I didn't want to make that decision because we're all in it together. But staff recommends number one. Thank you.

And are you looking for an approval today or you'll come back with some color options?

We can incorporate the more relevant local skyline and then the blue and green. We can use the colors. It's just how it's assembled together. So, we can provide, like, a black and white option in our style guide as well as how the brochures will look, how business cards will look, how public engagement documents and resources will look.

And if I might add, these are critical to further development of the website and also the Transportation Improvement Program web tool. So, they're a little bit hung up right now waiting for a template for colors and branding.

Commissioner Eisman?

Yeah, so are you looking – so you would like for us to make a determination on the colors today as well? Okay. Yeah. And that's from – all right. Well, then, and I guess blue and green – I like blue and green as a color scheme. I like seeing a logo with actual colors in it before you approve it. If we needed an option today, then I'd say select option one with the change of a blue and green color scheme and to redesign the skyline to better match.

Second. Second. Commissioner Realer?

May I also ask if they would try to outline the first one on the left, give it a little distinction between the white background and wherever it's going to go because it kind of disappears for me. Just to try it and see. Yes, we can do that. Give it a thin border or something. Okay. Yeah, for embroidery purposes and things like that.

Other comments from this board? Do members of the public have any strong opinions? Add their voice to the 16 or 17 of us. Thank you, public, for going along with us on this. We cannot discuss this privately amongst ourselves because it is a decision, so we, in the end, have to discuss it here unless we had a subcommittee. All right. So is Ms. Whitfield and Victoria, is this direction understood enough, this motion?

Yes.

Okay.

With those changes.

With those changes. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Motion passes with one notable.

Against Mayor War on that one.

With Mayor War in opposition. We're going to print that everywhere and stick it on him and give him a T-shirt. Thank you so much, Victoria, for being with us.

Ms. Pennington is now going to share the status of the website.

Perfect.

And I'll be very quick. Okay. Ignore the colors that these slides are in because they can be any color. So your domain name is Gainesville-Alachua-TPO.org. And it was selected based on input from Anak and Allison. Just to remind everyone that domain names can be letters, numbers, or hyphens. You cannot have an ampersand in your domain name. We can spoof it. So it'll, you know, that's what will be on the website. But the alternatives to that are spelling out the word and using just the letter N, like rock and roll, or using a hyphen. So that's why we went with the hyphen or Gainesville-Alachua-TPO.org. The goals that we talked about for your website were to first establish your identity as an independent MPO, who you are and what you do, and also to serve your users, government and agency partners, and the public. And the way that we're going to do that is having user-centric navigation, using clear, plain language, clean, attractive design, ensuring it's mobile-friendly, and also ensuring that the site meets accessibility requirements for Section 508. Also just wanted to specify that the site will be certified accessible, but it is up to you as an agency to ensure that your PDFs that we would load onto the site are accessible. And I've talked through Anak a little bit about resources to do that, and using Adobe Acrobat, and running checks, and working with the consultants when you get consultants on board, so that when documents are originated, the accessibility checks happen before they're saved into Acrobat. So that's where we are there. In the development process, we have completed the general navigation content and functionality. I've given Allison and Anak the wireframe. We've gone through that and compiled the content. We are working on the design elements, photography, and then we'll begin coding, which obviously this was an important part of the process because we need the final colors to do the website. So this might get bumped out a little bit, but we're going to try to keep to this timeline. We'll be beta testing, hopefully, around when you have your committee meetings later in April, and then we're looking to do the final launch at the end of the month. So now I'm going to show you, again, please ignore the colors, and this is not the exact design, but just so you have an idea of the navigation. Oh, sorry, I left out a page. Training and support. After we launch for you, we're going to do self-administration training for Anak and any other staff that you designate, so she knows how to upload documents and do the basic web things. We are providing ongoing support and can tweak whatever elements of your site as needed through the end of the year, and then at the end of the year, we'll decide with you what additional support you might need and how you want to handle domain transfer. So this is not how it's going to look exactly. This is just to give you an idea and, again, ignore the colors. There will be green in the new site. But across the top, your main navigation will be about planning and public participation. We're using your Connecting Communities tagline, and this will be a slideshow of different images. I'm having late this week, early next week, my photographer is coming down there to shoot new photography for the site all over the county. We then have your hot links with the most popular items, your meeting agendas and minutes, information about you and your committees, bike pet information and current projects. And then you will have an auto feed of the upcoming meetings and news items. We'll have a sign-up feature, and then here you can see the downstream navigation for about and planning. Under about, you'll have information about your organization, the board and committees, the staff, the news, the meetings. Working with you, that will refer people to county, HR, as well as your procurement process and legal. And then under planning, you'll have separate pages for studies and initiatives, bike ped, and then each of your main products, UPWP, LAPP, TIP, and LRTP. And that's it.

Thank you, Victoria.

So that's a quick update on your website.

Commissioner Wheeler.

I have a concern, and I don't know if it bothers anybody else. Victoria, could you go back to the very first slide where you were showing Gainesville slash Alachua TPO? Oh, the URL.

On the website.

Yes. The URL.

And again, this is not exactly how it's going to look, but.

Well, my question, my question is, it bothers me to, that's what I'm asking anybody else, if it would have the same thing visually for you all to see Alachua TPO, Alachua TPO all together in the same font. If you could maybe capitalize TPO or, and if you're not going to, I remember you didn't have Gainesville or Alachua capitalized. Did you, or not? It doesn't matter for a website. Yeah, but it does if we're trying to teach our children.

I'm sorry, which part, can you point me to like which part of the image I should be looking at?

Victoria, I think she's referring to the slide with the domain name.

Oh.

Yeah, I just visually, when I see the TPO right at the end of Alachua, it's hard to read. That's all. And I didn't know if you could capitalize the TPO or something to separate it out from Alachua. If it doesn't bother anybody else, that's fine. It does bother me that they're not capitalizing the city names, though, because we're trying to teach our children a proper way to read and write. And if we put it up there in lowercase letters, we're not, you know, walking our talk. That's all.

Well, all website addresses are lowercase letters. Websites don't recognize the difference between upper and lowercase.

But we could print it that way, is what you're saying.

I mean, when you print it on printed documents, you can make it a, you know, a capital G, a capital A, and a capital TPO. But domain names are all lowercase.

Well, that's a drag.

For the internet.

That's a drag. But, no, I'm a retired teacher, and we've put a lot of money into this community, into literacy issues. And I just feel like, you know, we need to talk about it. That's all. And I'm going off the board. I can say anything I want. So, anyway. No. But did nobody else visually look at the – so we can't use capital letters at all in there anywhere?

In – no, you – on everything that you print, you can capitalize whatever you want. But if someone types this into a browser, they're going to type it as lowercase because they don't want to have to change cases in the middle of typing. And there's no difference in the internet's brain whether something's capitalized or not.

Okay. The other thing, then, rather than the capitalizing, what about the hyphen between TPO? So, it just – I would like for you all to see it, to see if you all have the same reaction to it. That's all.

To answer the hyphen, you have to use the hyphen. Use the ampersand. Or you have to type – use the hyphen or type out –

I got that. The hyphen between the Gainesville and the Latchaway. I mean, the Gainesville and – yeah, county, right?

The two dashes.

That's – I just wanted you to see it, to see if it bothered you. If it doesn't bother you, I'm going to hush up. But see the Latchaway TPO? So, does that not – I did. Does that bother anybody or not?

So, Mary Helen, when we see this in print, I think we could very easily do what you're saying, which is print the capital G, capital A, capital TPO. But I would not add a hyphen into the URL because there is no hyphen in the name. It's confusing. So, when we print this up, we could use your recommendation. But as far as the actual URL, I think it's okay.

I think she's checked Gainesville, Latchaway TPO, without the hyphen, it's available still.

All right. No, no. I was just – I just was – I just thought it was awkward, Latchaway TPO. It was – that's all. But if you all think it's fine, then I'm just old. It's okay. I'm just coming from a different place, that's all. And the Latchaway TPO, whereas Gainesville is separate from Latchaway beautifully, the TPO just kind of gets lost in there, and that's all I was thinking. I'm done.

All right. Commissioner Engel? Yeah.

I kind of agree that it looks like Gainesville, Latchaway, but I honestly think you'd almost be better off just getting rid of the hyphen in the middle because very rarely in websites are you throwing hyphens in any way, and words usually just run together. And I think it really only makes Latchaway TPO go together because you separated it from Gainesville. So if you just went like a Latchaway, Gainesville, Latchaway TPO, all one word, I think it would look a little less confusing.

Yeah. I just looked up a Calamarian TPO as all one word.

It's easier to explain it to someone to just say Gainesville, Latchaway, TPO spelled out.

Yeah. I like that.

Commissioner Eastman? Yeah. I mean, I've done so many websites in my life, but the one piece of advice I give to people with URLs is that the main thing you're doing with the URL, particularly in government, is someone's going to be on the phone with you, and they're going to say, how do I get in touch with you? And you're going to say, my email is anatch.whitfield at Gainesville dash, don't write out the word dash, just put the dash in there, TPO.org. And that's every phone. You're going to be doing that 20 times a day, right? I've got the remote dash. The shorter the URL you can make, the better, just because you're constantly telling people how to get in touch with you over the phone. I don't want to say anything. There are other domains. I guess I could just say it here, though. I get concerned about, because anyone can just go buy whatever they want, but there are other domains that are shorter. In fact, the name of our organization is still open right now as a .org and a .com, which is significantly fewer letters.

Yeah. Yes. It's open.

I would just recommend for emails in particular, and for telling people verbally, go to our website, here's what it is when you're out in public, and it's not written down, to just make, the shorter you can make the URL, the better, I think.

We discussed GACPO.org.

Yeah, GACPO.org. Great. Well, yes. GACPO.org and GACPO.com is all open as we speak. So it's, you can quickly, that's an easy email address to give out, and an easy URL for people.

That's good. I'm good with that.

Commissioner Duncan Walker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I definitely support removing the hyphen because I think about human behavior, and when we jump on to the internet, you know, it is not in most of our brains to have to or even want to or remember typing a hyphen. So I think this is probably the easiest thing for our neighbors to remember. But let me ask this question because what I did not hear from staff are any possible links that may be added to the website that I know I'd be interested in seeing. So a link to, say, the Bicycle Master Plan, and I'm sure probably as we go along, you'll probably add these things, but I just, I wanted to see how or what tab or whatever you might put that underneath.

The last slide. The projects will fall under the planning link.

Excellent.

So when you hover your mouse over that, those products will pop up.

Perfect.

And then we're going to create a library of documents and plans, so that'll be a cover sheet with the name of the document, however many documents we produce over the next four or five years, and it'll be, it'll become a virtual library. So you click on the cover page, and it produces the PDF of the document. I love that. Thank you. So that's in the works.

Yeah. Yeah. So will people also be able to interface with maps, let's say, to our trails? Is there a plan to, boom, they can click a link and go straight to?

As long as the project itself, like with the BIPET Master Plan, their folks are creating the GIS maps, we can link those maps into the TPO's website.

Excellent. So I know you're going to link them to RTS. Yes. All right. You got it. Welcome. Thank you very much.

Okay. I'm going to go Alford, then Willits, then Ward and Engel.

I had two questions. First of all, is there a way to contact us on the website as a board individually or staff? Is that a form or is that just shared emails?

Victoria?

I couldn't hear that. Can you holler?

Okay. Is there a way on the website to contact us as a board or individually? Or is there a way to contact staff? And is that just email addresses or would there be a form?

Yes. Well, two things. We have a contact page for the staff and we can put contact information for the board individually if you like. Or if you want a collective email that goes to all board members, any of those things we can create for you.

I get a lot of communication from folks that I refer to this organization because it's more appropriate than coming to the county commission. So it would be nice to just have that way of like go to this website. Yes. And then my second question was, so the last time I did a website, I was advised to buy all similar URLs. Yes. And do redirects? Are we doing something like that?

Yes. I've already bought and I've bought and I've already purchased several, but now, now we might have some more to purchase.

So, okay. I, I, that's just a concern because, you know, people do crazy stuff. So, okay. Thank you.

Okay. Real quick. I just, what I had is I think we have to be a little careful with a dash because Miami dash state County is a thing and we are not a combined, you know, like we're not changing the name of the County. We're not a combined. So we got to be a little careful about introducing that. I, that's my recommendation to the County and the city and everyone. Now, I think I had a mayor award. Sure.

So I'm a fan of keeping it short. I would prefer gactpo.org. I know that doesn't mean a thing, but if you want people to actually type it and do it, that might happen. If it was just gainesvillewatchewa.org, then people could remember that when you throw in the TPO, you just ask them to type 21 letters at that point, as opposed to six.

All right.

If it's going to be effective, gactpo is what you want. Okay. Mr. Engel.

Um, actually that's what I meant to say was, uh, a hundred percent team gactpo. I got, if you're not from here, you were going to misspell Alachua. That is an awfully long and intimidating looking URL. I think gactpo, if it's available.

Commissioner Cornell. It was available until we all started talking about it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I, I agree. Get rid of the dash, make it short. Um, really what I wanted to say is just, uh, thank you, um, director and also Victoria for actually getting us the site where we are. And I reflected on the original letter that we got from DOT about your site doesn't have links. It doesn't work. And so that's the importance of what we're doing is we're notching those things off of that original letter. So thank you for pressing forward.

Okay. So I don't know that we've given a commissioner book.

GACTPO.org.

I think I'm hearing. I move that we would shorten and simplify the website.

Second.

I have a motion and a second for a shorter letters that will be hard to remember. Um, but I, it makes sense. The arguments I'm hearing, um, are there any members of the public who want to weigh in on this? Any more, any more conversation from the board staff? The motion, uh, by, uh, Cornell and seconded by, uh, is, uh, us to use the URL GACTPO.org. If it is still available, if not, we'll, we'll come back to that, um, as our main URL. Um, all right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. The motion passes unanimously. Oh, unanimous. Unanimous. Thank you. Oh, sorry, no. Oh, no, no.

Hi, I just bought it. Go on, go, daddy. Yeah. We aim to please.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Victoria. Thank you. Have a great afternoon. I'll catch up with you later.

Thank you. All right. Um, we don't have any discussion items. We are on to information items. Director updates.

Yes, sir. Um, PowerPoint. So, um, information. The board adopted the Sixth Amendment to the UPWP last month, um, March 6th. Um, they're all, the days are all jumbling together now, um, but a week and a half after that, uh, we were notified by the state that there are some changes in Tallahassee where the de-obligated funds and the closed-out funds are not guaranteed to the TPO to come back in year one and year two of this next coming two-year UPWP cycle. Um, so the amendment has been approved. So all of the, the letter of authorization for the 2.6 million has been approved, um, the joint certification, all of those things are completed. The 26-28 UPWP is still in review. We've received the state's DOT's comments. We're still waiting for FTA and FHWA's comments. Those are due on the 15th. Um, I've made all the edits as requested by DOT, just holding off until we get any comments from the federal agencies. So, um, in terms of what the changes in the regulations have and impacts to us, I have a series of slides. So, this was the original de-obligation amount, 1.096 million. Um, we retained in the current 25-26 UPWP the 1.4 million. And this is what our summary looks like in the next two-year fiscal cycles. Um, all of the, you know, this includes the 1.4 million that we kept. I'm sorry. The 1.096 million that we're going to get. Um, this is year one in total. The local match is currently at 24,000. And then the DOT, the soft match from DOT. Um, the soft match represents 18.07%. Um, that is across all of the tasks. So, the numbers that you see in blue here, off my mouse, is 18.07% of the PL and PL Complete Streets funds. That's year one. This is year two. Um, we are keeping our current UPWP for fiscal year 26-28 the same. We're going to let it ride until the state tells us otherwise. Just to be on the safe side, we're going to, however, operate as if we may not get those funds so that we are still able to seek reimbursements from the state for projects as we move forward. Um, so I prepared a quick little spreadsheet. This is as skinny as of a budget as I can take it. Um, this is in consultation with Achaia helping with some suggestions. Um, just so that you see here, this task 1 administration is roughly 50, 61% of the, um, the total PL funds. It's three FTEs. So myself, a senior planner, and a transportation planner. Um, this, these numbers here are 20% above the base minimum, just in case it gives us room to negotiate. Um, and then at the recommendation of fiscal, um, with a 40% fringe. And that's what this 400,000, 406,000 is. So this number is populated here, rounded to the nearest dollar, um, 10,000 for travel and training. And then the county's staff services agreement is 45. That puts administration, I'm sorry, and office space. So something new is the annual audit that wasn't in the current UPWP. It's been added to this UPWP as a new requirement. Um, I guessed at 50,000, it is required that it's performed by an independent auditor or independent CPA. Um, so this number might change. I don't know how much it's going to cost. Um, but we'll, when we have to do the audit, we'll do the, you know, we'll, we'll have to adjust these numbers. It may go up, it may go down. Um, the Eco Interactive, which I'll show you in a little bit, the MVP's already been handled. Victoria's going to create the site and then she'll train staff so that we won't have to continue to hire out for updating our website. So these three items here brings our administration task to 563,708. That is without consideration of COALIS. So this number will have to increase annually with COALIS, um, to make sure that we are, um, giving salary increases to our employees properly. And then that leaves a balance, uh, uh, for tasks two through seven at, um, planning for the LRTP, as I shared when we were discussing the, the UPWP at 400,000 over five years is setting aside 80,000, um, UPWP documentation, 13, in case we need consultant services for that, the TIP and LLPP, 16, public participation. Um, it's to respect the fact that we've had, um, advisory committee members asking for a line item for public participation that is just to go out and interact with the public and not necessarily tied to a specific project. So every project will have a public participation component. This is just another 10,000 in case there's like a community event or something like that where we want to go and participate. Um, and then setting aside 17, 75,000, I keep losing my mouse, I'm sorry, 75,000 for ICS and systems. Um, this is where we've been placing transit, um, discussions money and then, um, 150,000 for two, um, studies averaging 75,000. That puts us at 907, the, um, you add this number and this number is 907,708. That puts us at a negative of 67,700 because that is for 840 per year. However, what this table Excel file does not include is the deal, the state's 18.07% soft match. So if we were to add the soft match to the 840,000, that brings us to 151,788. That's something that we could continue to add into the UPWP unless there's any other changes coming down the pipeline. Um, if that's the case, um, then I want to make sure that the board understands, um, the obligations in year one, close out in year two. If those monies aren't returned to us, um, the conversations that I've had with all the board members regarding the local assessment, that conversation may have to come up a little faster than we had discussed one-on-one because of the uncertainty with the state funding. Our, the obligation funds and our closeout funds is going into the state coffers. So we are competing against the other 26 MPOs, TPOs to get our monies back. Um, and then what, if that does happen, then we will also have to take a re-evaluation of the studies, like how many studies we want to move forward, which corridors are our priorities, and then ultimately amend the UPWP to reflect those changes. So that is the, the obligation and closeout updates. And Ms. Brown is here also to answer any questions I might not be able to answer.

Commissioner Engel. Um, uh, the ITN systems at $75,000, do you expect that to be $75,000 in the first year to get equipment and everything going? Do you expect that to be $75,000 continuing on?

This is, it, the, the, so the, the, the name on the row is just systems planning. That's what the task is, um, from the MPO handbook. It can go towards transit. It can go towards signals, signalization improvements. Like, for example, um, congestion management planning is an important aspect that is required that the RPC hasn't produced a document. So that $75,000 might go towards creating a, a CPM, a CMP, excuse me, congestion management plan that is still required for our joint certification.

Commissioner Cornell.

Just going to say thank you for that update on the budget and, uh, to Ms. Brown, keep fighting for us up at the St. Police, the obligated funds. Thank you.

So this is just informational, but it's. Yep, just the information. Any other, do you have any other questions about this? I know it's a, it's a lot to understand. Yes. But you, but I will say, Director Rufield, you do a pretty good job of explaining it, and spreadsheets really help so that we are not, you know, trying to do the math in our own heads.

Yes. And it's all interactive. So if you ever want to have a work session where you just want to play with the numbers, the Excel files are built to, you know, respond to any changes in the cells. Um, okay. So in terms of our current UPWP that's under review right now, um, once we get the federal agency's comments back, we're hoping to take it to, um, VPAC and TAC and CAC in April. Um, I do want to point out that we have, or DOT has received their snapshot for the TIP update that was received on the 3rd as opposed to the 7th. Um, District 2 has shared it with their consultants. So we're, we will get it in time to discuss it at the advisory committee meetings, but, um, not to make any decisions as yet. Um, so this board will see the draft TIP twice. Um, I'm sorry, the TIP twice person's draft in May, and then adoption is in June. Um, other comments, the interactive online tip, um, for the sake of time, I have here the links for the staging environment, which is, it's, unless you get a chance to play in it, it's not going to make a whole lot of sense. So I want to at least share with you what the public environment would look like if this works.

Look at all those dashes. My goodness.

Didn't make those. Not a capital. Did not make those.

What's that website in case I want to look it up myself?

Okay, so this is what our consultants have built so far. Um, what is cool about this is that when you look at DLT's Excel file that they send, it's broken down every project, it's, it'll, you'll see it like five or six times because it lists the project for each funding source. So it'll look like hundreds of projects, but it's actually just like maybe 70-something projects. So, um, this platform combines it so that it's easier to see at 77 projects. Now, the data that went into this was last year's snapshot. Once we get this year's snapshot, staff will then populate the, um, the staging, um, platform. But what's cool about it is that there is an interactive map once it loads. So you're able to zoom in and just click on a network and it'll tell you details about the project. Um, the status of it, the segment of it, um, the phase that it's under and things like that, um, the general public can also access this website and they can go in and put a comment. Staff will see those comments as we're reviewing and keeping an eye on our, on our website. Um, it also has visualizations. So this shows like all the different kinds of projects that are in the DOT's Excel file. And so it provides a pie of the different kinds and how big of a piece of pie those various projects are going to get. So with this next round, when we get the next Excel file, before we upload the doc, the information, staff is going to add a column and then combine like resurfacing operations, maintenance to maintenance or sidewalks, trails, signals, anything related to bicycle, pedestrian, we'll combine those together. So it's all just one bike pet pie, wedge of the pie so that your pie won't have so many tiny little slices. So it'll be more, uh, user friendly in terms of what, where the funding sources are going towards. Anything that's routine maintenance, um, resurfacing, things like that will just fall under other. So that's really quick. What I want to share with the website.

We think that's fine. I mean, this was the links that weren't working.

So, um, all right. Going back to the PowerPoint. Um, another few updates, BPAP at their March 24th meeting voted to change their name to the BPAC, Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, simply because it's easier. Every other, um, MPL, TPO in the state refers to it as the BPAC, Bicycle Pedestrian Action Advisory Committee. It's easier when we write staff reports. We could just say the board and advisory committees instead of the board, the BPAP advisory committee, advisory board. Um, because even in their last conversation, the last meeting that I attended, they were making reference to the board. And another board member said, well, which, what are you talking about? Is it our board or their board or the board? So, um, it was a seven, uh, there were seven members present. It was a six to one vote to change the name to BPAC. And then just a couple of updates. There's some flyers at the front there that I brought. Um, a gentleman came to the last BPAC meeting and shared bike day. It's April 11th. Um, it's going to start at the first magnitude brewing. It's from 830 to one. Um, but it's, it is a fundraiser. That's not what the TPO is, is sharing. It's to share on the bike safety awareness. So if you wanted to participate in ride, you could, um, I think there's a.

Commissioner Rook. I just want to admit, that's the Gainesville Opportunity Center event. It's, uh, in conjunction with some bicycles. Yes, sir. I'm sorry.

You're correct.

That's great.

Um, and then just a reminder, staff will be at the, um, just me, actually. Allison's sitting this one out. Well-deserved. Um, the training's on April 29th. And then the director's meeting on the 30th. And then the Institute is on May 21st. And that is the last item, Chair.

All right. So that's all of your items. That leads us to any, any further questions of, of, of the director. All we have are in the, the mode, I guess I'll say. All right. Then let's go to the next, um, item, which is agency reports, partner updates. And so far I've listed RTS ridership report. Jesus is going to join us at the front.

Jesus government for the city transportation department. Um, I don't know if we need to do this, uh, every, every time we meet, but, uh, I guess I hope that was a little confusion about, and who's supposed to present these, uh, monthly reports. We used to do that to the RPC, provided that information. And then they posted on the regular NTPO reports.

But since, uh, I've asked, uh, Mr. Gomez to, we, I moved RTS updates into agency updates instead of just being a TPO staff update. Very good. Okay.

Yeah. Since we're doing that now, we changed the format because we saw the, all RPC report was really ugly, I would say, didn't show anything. So on this one, you can see the, the ride sheet by route on the month of, uh, March and, uh, also the productivity on each route. Um, this, uh, this month we carry 390,000, which is compared to last year is, um, it's lower, about 87,000, uh, riders lower than last year. Um, of course, we provided less service also, 2,800 less hours than compared to last year. Um, in terms of the new service, the ADA service, we carry 6,500, uh, passengers. Um, and we last year did, uh, 4,000. So we have, uh, 47% increase in ADA riders compared to last year. Can we say that again? 47%. And we last year provided 4,000 trips. This, we did 6,500 trips.

All right. I will, uh, on the city side, I'm going to want to see some numbers on what we may have just saved in one month over. Because if people don't know those, the, the city was paying by the, um, by the ride and a negotiated rate. Um, and so that is, that is very interesting. Sorry. Can you, can you miss right? Okay.

You can let me know when to advance. Yeah.

Next slide.

So, um, the last five months, you can see this is the, the ride sheet for this fiscal year. Go from, you know, 500, over 500,000 now to under 400,000. Next. Then when you compare the last five years on, uh, on this month, you also see, you know, uh, different numbers. So we were recovering from COVID on 2023, but since we have, uh, a lot of, you know, service cuts, we've been decreasing that ride ship also. In terms of ride ship, I guess, uh, some of the members wanted to see how the distribution is in the city, county, Santa Fe, and UF, so that you can see that, you know, 72% is really UF, city's 15%, county, 8%, and Santa Fe, 5%. So, um, that's, that's all we have.

Mr. Gomez, are these, um, locations where the rides were, um, aborted, boarding locations?

Yes, that's very important.

And, uh, Commissioner Engel.

And, Joe, can we get this, like, what I've gotten back up is just, like, uh, like, one quick.

The one page from the RPC, yes.

We, um, I'm sorry, Mr. Gomez, the, the previous one was just the RPC, RPC's black and white table. The staff report on this was included. We received the PowerPoint this morning, so moving forward, we'll make sure to get it there.

That's great. Thank you. Great. Mayor Ward? So, if I might add in here, this is, it's not that this is an inaccurate pie chart, it's that it's, it doesn't tell the whole story. Um, riders, the, the 72% UF, first of all, those folks probably live in the city of Gainesville and some in, in the incorporated county, but we're, we're not just talking about students. Um, we're, we're talking about faculty and staff at every level of, of staff. Um, and I don't know how we. I don't know that there's a way to break that out, um, any differently, but, but it's important to say that because you look at this and you might think, oh, these are 72% students. That's not at all the case. Um, anybody who is on the UF campus or, you know, originating or, or, or, uh, ending up on the UF campus via RTS is included in that and that includes a whole lot of faculty and staff riders. So it's important to say that I don't know how we count that out, but we do have that.

That we can bring back to the next meeting.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, the, I mean, the, the, the, the last month or the month before that motion where we were asking you have to really bring in faculty and those folks that work that don't have cars that use RTS for transportation. That was kind of your point. And so to the extent you can break that out, Mr. Gomez and, and, and show that to us, that would be a great thing for us to see as we continue these discussions with UF and with the countywide RTS kind of discussion.

Um, Mr. Chair, if I may, the, the direction from the board at the last meeting to have UF and the TPO and other agencies get together. We did a, um, uh, an attempt to get the meeting scheduled by email and I failed dismally. Until then we had a professional do that and her staff do a doodle poll. So we do have a date for all of us to sit at a table together. I believe it's the 21st or the 22nd.

Super. Thank you. All right. Uh, some are, uh, certain.

Yes. Um, so you said that these are term rides that terminate at UF or at Santa Fe?

No, that's, uh, that's coming from, um, we have a key that we can identify whose faculty and staff, whose student, and that's the ridership numbers.

Yes. That's for boarding, right?

That's the passing board is, yeah. Your faculty and staff, your UF, they're all included in the UF.

Oh, so it's, cause my next question was going to be, is when they scan their badge to come on, was there some type of identifier that, so you actually may have the data that, um,

Yeah.

Commissioner Cornell, so you could retroactively report.

We have the data that, of, you know, we have, for example, you identify as faculty and staff from UF, we have a key on the fare box that we can count who's, that you are, uh, faculty and staff.

Okay. So you could retroactively report that information is what I'm asking. Can, can you? We can go back. Yes. Thank you.

I don't know how many years, but we can go back.

No, no. I'm not asking for prior years. I'm just asking for a couple months, maybe that we could have that because we, what's, what's coming. Do you have the same information for Santa Fe?

Yes.

All right. Commissioner Engel.

Just so I understand how these numbers are broken out. Say if I'm a UF student, get on a bus, swipe my card, but I'm not going to UF. I'm going to Butler Plaza so I can do some shopping or whatever else. I would still fall under that 72%. Yes. Not the 15%. Yeah. Okay. So this isn't necessarily like the routes they're taking. It's who's paying for it. It's who's paying for it.

All right. And the majority are also in the city because of, you know, we don't provide that much campus service anymore.

True enough. Miss Dixon.

I just wanted to thank the members for clarifying because the first answer I thought I heard was it was counted by, based on the stops themselves. So I think that was really helpful. Your two questions. So you actually are having people show their cards and you can differentiate whether they're UF or Santa Fe.

Yes. Different IDs. They have different keys on the fare box. Okay. We can identify Santa Fe faculty and staff and Santa Fe students.

Miss Dixon. You and me should ride the bus sometime. We both work at UF. We can...

Yeah.

I've done it. You know, they are out back there clicking away.

Yep. All right. Councilwoman Taylor.

Yes. When it says the county 8%, could you explain that a little bit to me, please?

Yeah. It's the... The county's 29,000 passengers that we... With that also county ID. So that's 8% of the total right sheet for that month.

I guess when... County has a map? No.

No, that's a good question. I think I have the same question, Mr. Graham. Can you tell us the difference between city and county? If this is about how they're getting clocked in. And is this... Does that mean there's 29,000 people on the paid-for county routes or what's... I'm confused as well.

Because actually, what would be a county route? Like, because county would, to me, would be Waldo, unincorporated areas. Because that's out of the city. So I'm trying to understand, not just...

Yeah, I have to... I have to verify that with my staff. Because you have... We have the county ID also. So I don't know if that's just the county or if the routes are going through the county. And we have the... These number of passengers. Okay. So we have city also ID. We have county ID. So we need to... I need to verify that with my staff if they prepare this.

Okay.

I also have another question. Since we're in ridership and it's not regarding UF, dealing with MV, has... What has become of MV providing services for the rural area? Because I don't see anyone picking anybody up out there. But I do see the little buses moving around here in Gainesville. Actually, with some MV drivers. So I was just trying to figure out what's going on with the rural area to make sure that we have adequate transportation from the small municipalities into Gainesville.

I can provide a very high-level response. MV still is providing service for the county in the unincorporated area. You may not see their vehicles as often, but they still are under contract with the county.

Thank you. Because the reason why I ask that question is we have a lot of citizens, well, a few, that tend to repeat the same thing that MV won't pick them up. And I'm like, I don't understand because that's what the service is for, for the unincorporated areas, and to move you guys back and forth. So I just wanted to make sure so I can relay that back to them.

Yeah. If there are specific, you know, concerns of that nature, you can forward them to us and we can investigate. It could be that they're not eligible for the type of trip or ride that they're, you know, trying to get. But if there's someone who's used the service in the past, they should be able to.

All right. Do we have other questions for Mr. Gomez?

I just think that when the data comes back, it would be really helpful to me if you would let us know, like, what is included in each of those categories, what you're counting, if it's people with a badge, if a stop is terminated within the city limits or in the county limits? I mean, just let us know that so that we can make sure that we're understanding exactly what. Yeah.

I'll clarify because there are several ways that we can see the passengers. We also have the APC information. There's our automatic passenger encounters that you can go where the passengers are on and off. So I don't know if that's our information is out of the APCs or is out of the actual farebox system. So we clarify that. I didn't know we were going to have to present that today. So I'm just, I wasn't well prepared for that.

And in the previous meeting also, I think Ms. Monique mentioned about folks who had lived inside the city limits and had purchased NV or prepaid for NV rides. And then with the switchover, did we figure out what was happening with those citizens who had prepaid for rides, but now the city has taken over those ones within the city limits?

There were very few and we asked them to contact NV because that's revenue that went to NV. So to reimburse them and then we could actually do the, you know, issue another ticket where the ADA serves in the city. Okay. Commissioner Wheeler.

Commissioner Wheeler.

You know, I've always been interested about public school kids using their bus transportation too and trying to educate them so as to how they can use it, parents too. And did you all keep track of the elementary school kids as well along with this data?

We have under 18.

Yeah.

So we can provide that ride too.

Right.

Yeah. In over 65, we collect that information too.

And are we doing, are we educating the kids? Is there some way that we're getting into the schools? Yes. Okay. Thank you for doing that. I think it's important that our city kids know how to use the bus system for sure. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

All right. Any other questions for Mr. Gomez? All right. Thank you, Mr. Gomez for this update. All right. Our next item, do we have any other agency or partner reports from FDOT or others? No. Okay. Our next item, upcoming meetings of interest. Can you run through those real quick?

Yes, sir. The April 15th is, it's just there. I didn't put it in the PowerPoint. April 15th, BIPED community engagement meeting, and then the rest is there. And then our, the next board meeting and a series of advisory committee meetings. That's all I have, Mr. Chair.

All right. We're now to public comments general, or if it were, or I'm sorry, I didn't call for public comment on the last item, the RTS update. Are there any members of the public who would like to talk about the RTS item or any other general comments at this time? I don't see any, anyone. We're on to member comments, member comments from this board. Councilman Taylor. Thank you.

I would like to thank the executive director for coming to Waldo and riding through our city, our big, small, beautiful city, to see exactly what it is, our transportation needs that we have. And she saw quite a lot. She saw the potholes are about half the size of me. That's on 1475. So she, she had a really nice business to see. Um, we do have transportation needs in, um, Waldo, I was going to say Alachua County, Waldo. And I would like to also, um, if possible, if we could schedule and coordinate to go to the other small rural municipalities and see what's going on with them and, and see about their needs. But I, I really like to thank you for coming out to Waldo and seeing about our needs. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. Other member comments?

Um, unfortunately, I'd like to say, um, we need some markings on 301. We had a box truck to clip a school bus on March 9th. Um, so yeah, that, on that, that corridor, that area where I was telling you, where I've mentioned several times before in Hawthorne, 301. So we, we had to figure out some kind of way to slow the traffic down in there. And there was an accident I heard, um, I think yesterday. Yesterday, yesterday, another one, but the, the bus, um, couple of kids went to the hospital. It wasn't like anything major, but the truck did tip over. Yeah. It was, could have been, could have been worse than what it was.

And if I may add to that, it's been a while. It's been over 20 years, but, um, on 301, that is kind of a, a danger zone for the buses because I had a family member that drove buses before and a semi truck smashed into the back of their bus. All of the kids on the bus had to go to the hospital. Thankfully, there were only, I think maybe like two or three plus her kids. But, um, yeah, it's a big issue on 301, not just in Hawthorne, but along 301 and where they have to stop and pick them up. So it's quite dangerous.

All right. Uh, any other member comments? Anybody? It's your opportunity. If not, then, um, I think that's, uh, all we have on our agenda. So, uh, when's our next, our next meeting is, is that on this?

May 4th. May 4th.

All right. Our next meeting is May 4th. Is that a one o'clock or a three o'clock?

Should be three.

Should be three. All right. We are adjourned.

Thank y'all.