Morro Bay’s public transportation — runabout-style buses and trolleys — could soon be turned over to the regional authority to run, maintain, dispatch and manage.
The City Council voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Zara Landrum dissenting to negotiate an agreement with the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), the Countrywide agency that also runs the big commuter buses loading at City Park.
If the proposed schedule for the change holds, RTA would take over the City’s local bus rotes next June. The RTA board is expected to approve moving forward with an agreement at an upcoming meeting.
“The proposed agreement between the City and RTA,” reads a report from Public Works, which oversees the Morro Bay Transit (MBT) system, “would be for a period of 10 years and allow for the termination of the agreement by either party without cause.
“It would include a scope of service identifying the service level and fare structure at the time RTA takes over operating the MBT, as well as identify transit vehicles and equipment whose ownership of, and responsibility for maintenance and replacement, would be transferred to the RTA. The City would retain the ability to adjust bus schedules, bus routes, and fare structure.”
Under such an agreement, all the monies due the City under State and Federal sources, and filtered through the Council of Governments, would go directly to RTA but be accounted for separately from all the other transportation systems’ monies.
From that — plus whatever is raised form fares and advertising on buses — would become part of the overall budget, too.
The need arises from a lack of ridership, as rules for public transportation funding require a 10-percent return of costs through fares (and advertising too), and Morro Bay’s rate of recovery for the current fiscal year (2024/25), is just 4.6%.
Coming up short apparently has consequences. “If the ratio continues to be under 10% for the next two fiscal years,” the report said, “the City will be subject to penalties between $25,000 to $50,000 or more and increasing annually in FY26-27 unless other measures are taken.”
They reportedly looked into cutting hours of operations; increasing fares; and merging the service with RTA. Analysis of the first two showed they wouldn’t work leaving the RTA option.
The City’s contract with MV Transportation, a private company out of Dallas, Texas, for drivers and dispatch will continue until RTA’s ready to take over. So bus riders in town won’t see an immediate change.
The costs for MVT are listed in the report. “The contract for Transit service is $45.37/vehicle service hour and $6,484/month and for Trolley service is $45.37/vehicle service hour and $2,537/month and for 2024 is estimated to be $265,000 annually. Additional operating costs, such as fuel and other maintenance related costs, amount to approximately $46,000 annually.”
That’s a huge chunk of what really isn’t a very large budget. The report lists the City’s annual transit revenues as: $368,000 out of the Local Transportation Funding (LTF); $60,900 from State Transportation Act (STA) funding; and $17,000 from the fare boxes for a total of $446,000. The report lists no income from advertising as the City discontinued a program to put ads on the side of the Trolleys during the COVID Pandemic (the Community Foundation had been running this program and split the proceeds with the City).
Under RTA management, the projected budget for LTF remains the same; STA goes up to $75,000; and they list advertising at $12,000, with $17,000 from the fare boxes.
So consolidating with RTA would make more money available from the STA and they will apparently restart the advertising program. The big RTA route buses also do this.
On the expenditures side, the report lists $265,000 for MVT’s operations; $90,000 for MVT’s administration; $46,000 for City operations (maintenance); and $27,000 for City administration, a charge justified under the City’s cost allocation program.
That’s the money source for the City General Fund that is taken out of all of the so-called “enterprise funds” — i.e. water, sewer, transportation and harbor — and reimburses for things like the city attorney, payroll, HR, city manager and more.
And the City is also “paying” for its administration duties mainly handled by a Management Analyst and the Public Works Director out of the General Fund.
“The City currently receives no State funding allocation funding for this work. These tasks are primarily being funded by the General Fund and amount to approximately $69,692 annually.”
“Further,” the report continued, “a variety of roles dispersed across City departments require administrative involvement in MBT affairs. These roles include, but are not limited to, the Public Works Mechanic, Senior Administrative Analyst, Finance Manager, Finance Director, City Clerk, City Attorney, and City Manager. The City currently transfers $27,797 annually from the Transit Fund to the General Fund to recoup these staff costs.”
In the past, both of these practices — a short fare box return and inter-fund transfers — have been questioned by the SLOCOG, which funnels public transportation monies to the various cities and RTA, along with funding roads projects.
The City started its public transportation, Dial-a-Ride service in 1977, according to the report. In October 2010, due to funding cuts the DAR system morphed into a “fixed route system (fixed route with ability to deviate off route for Dial-A-Ride trips).”
Riders at first had to walk to a City bus stop to cath the bus on a regular schedule, but that evolved to a return to this partial DAR service, geared to accommodate riders who had trouble walking to a bus stop.
So the system now allows someone to call ahead of time and arrange to be picked up at their home and taken downtown to the transit hub at City Park. So while it’s similar to DAR, it’s not a “door-to-door” service one might now get with Uber or a taxi.
Currently, the City operates two Saturday-Sunday trolley routes with an average daily ridership of 110 riders per day and a single-bus, Monday-Friday, deviated fixed route service that sees an average daily ridership of 47 riders per day,” according to the report.
Trolley service started in 1994 with a single route and expanded to three routes each with a trolley vehicle. COVID changed all this, as Saturday bus service was eliminated and the Trolley routes reduced from three to two.
Also, the City anticipates the State will be handing down mandates for electric vehicles to fight climate change and while monies for such capital purchases are available (and the City has tapped these for most every vehicle its purchased), going through RTA and its larger buying power, would help.
“Projects being planned for over the next few years,” the report said, “include automated fare collection system, automated vehicle locators [AVL], zero-emission bus electrification, charging infrastructure and vehicle procurement.” Transit money has been used for a lot of things. “Over the past 10 years,” the report said, “projects have included required local matches from the Transit Fund to grants for seven bus and trolley procurements, City Park Transit Hub project, MBT route signage and information display cases, Short Range Transit Plan update, Triennial Performance audits, annual fiscal audits, replacement transit office furniture, Black Hill Repeater equipment and vehicle radio replacements, farebox vault replacements, and bike racks for transit vehicles.”
And finally, the drivers and dispatchers would have more opportunities with RTA. “There would be an increased driver wage scale and opportunity for drivers to have full time employment/benefits as drivers would be able to add other RTA transit service shifts to their schedule.”
