AGENDA #5i

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Town Council Members

FROM:            Mayor Waldorf

SUBJECT:       Reformation of N.C. Coalition for Public Transportation into the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition

DATE:             November 13, 2000

This memo is to update you on recent discussions of the board of the Coalition for Public Transportation, provide you with bylaws of a “reformed” organization, seek your support for this new N.C. Metropolitan Coalition, and solicit your ideas as to what the “reformed” coalition’s legislative agenda should be for 2001.

BACKGROUND

As you know, for several years Chapel Hill has been a member of the N.C. Coalition for Public Transportation, founded in 1993.  I believe Council Member Joyce Brown was a member of the founding board of directors.  The Coalition’s bylaws state, “the business and objectives of the Coalition are to develop, recommend, and promote a coordinated transportation policy and funding methods that reflect the wide range of public transportation needs of the people of the state…”  Furthermore, the Coalition “is formed on a temporary basis to achieve these aims over the next four years, until the Board of Directors dissolves it, whichever shall come first.”  The Coalition has worked with other public transportation interests to sponsor transit rally days, to lobby for funding for transit, and to seek a dedicated source of revenue for public transportation.

Though we still do not have a dedicated source of revenue for transit (except for Charlotte-Mecklenburg and the rental car tax for TTA and the Triad), the Coalition was probably an important influence in getting the state to increase its funding of mass transit.  This year, for example, the legislature appropriated an additional $5.9 million in urban and regional operating assistance and made these funds recurring.  The legislature also adopted means whereby transit operations could operate joint ventures and initiate full funding grant agreements with DOT.  Several of us from the Coalition met with committee chairs and made a presentation to Senator Gulley’s Transportation Finance Study Commission.  Perhaps our efforts helped.

RATIONALE FOR REORGANIZATION

For the last three years, the Coalition meetings, whenever possible, have been scheduled for the same place and date as the informal group of “large city mayors” that Mayor Pat McCrory takes responsibility for convening.  About a year ago, several mayors (particularly Mayors McCrory and Tennyson) and other Coalition members began to talk about the possibility of altering the Coalition’s bylaws and changing its name to create a different organization that specifically represented larger cities, with public transit as the number one interest item but allowing other issues to be pursued.  When Coalition director Anne Franklin resigned in June, this idea was pursued more aggressively.

Mayors McCrory and Tennyson took a proposal to the League of Municipalities Board of Directors, asking the League board to sanction an affiliate organization that would focus on transit and other issues unique to urban areas.  (Some of the larger city mayors believed that the current League structure did not fully meet their needs).  The League board welcomed this idea and approved it unanimously. 

As always, the Coalition for Public Transportation met at the annual League meeting, last October in Fayetteville.  (I have attached minutes that reflect that discussion).  The members present unanimously approved changing the Coalition for Public Transportation to the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition and approved bylaws.  The following Executive Committee members were elected:  Chair, Pat McCrory; Vice Chair, Rosemary Waldorf; Treasurer, Pat Moss (Hickory City Council); and members, Nick Tennyson and Keith Holliday (Mayor of Greensboro).

KEY PRINCIPLES OF THE ORGANIZATION

I have attached the revised bylaws that the League board and Coalition members have all approved, but here is a simpler summary of some key points:

  1. A director/lobbyist would be hired to coordinate the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition’s legislative agenda.  He/she would prepare position papers for 3-4 top Coalition priorities, with public transit being the primary priority, and present a lobbying strategy.
  2. The director/lobbyist would coordinate all lobbying efforts with the League, and would depend on League staff for the kinds of services that have been provided in the past to the Coalition for Public Transportation.
  3. The N.C. Metropolitan Coalition’s objectives and work program would be compatible with the League’s policy statements.
  4. The director/lobbyist would be hired and evaluated on an annual basis by the Executive Committee of the Coalition.
  5. The Coalition for Public Transportation’s Articles for Incorporation, Bylaws, and other legal documents have been amended to include expanded objectives and changes in membership requirements.
  6. Membership would be open to mayors or mayors’ designees of cities with a population of 25,000 or above.  Up to five membership slots would be open for smaller municipalities that are in urban areas, such as Carrboro.
  7. Most important are the objectives of the organization.  The new bylaws state that “The Coalition shall serve as an instrumentality of the various units of local government that comprise its membership for the purpose of promoting the interchange of ideas and experiences among municipal officials and investigating, studying, discussing, recommending and promoting policies, regulations and legislation that would encourage the continued development of the urban areas of North Carolina as livable, environmentally sound and economically viable centers.  Specific issues affecting its members which may be considered by the Coalition shall include, but not be limited to, development and funding of public transportation systems, air quality and highway congestion, criminal justice, zoning and land use, and urban growth.”

NEXT STEPS

A Coalition meeting will be held in Greensboro on November 30 to adopt a dues structure and develop a legislative agenda for 2001.  Other representatives are also, I assume, reporting to their Councils and seeking permission to finalize this new direction.  Those of us involved really hope that membership will not only be retained, but will be increased by this reorganization.  Getting almost all the cities of 25,000 or more persons on board would give the organization more clout, we reason.

A proposed dues structure is attached.  It actually would reduce Chapel Hill’s annual dues from $4,400 to $4,000.

Topics I have considered offering for a legislative agenda are:

I would appreciate your thoughts on these suggestions, and any other suggestions you might have.

CONCLUSION

I request that the Council agree to shift our membership from the old Coalition for Public Transportation to the new N.C. Metropolitan Coalition, and to allow me to represent Chapel Hill on this group for the year 2001.  I have not written this as an action item, as we are already members of the Coalition and have already paid our dues for this year.  However, if Council believes that specific action is desirable, I hope someone will make the appropriate motion.

ATTACHMENTS

  1. Bylaws (p. 4).
  2. Minutes of October 15, 2000 meeting (p. 13).
  3. Proposed dues structure (p. 17).
  4. Annual service fee calculation worksheet (p. 18).