08/05/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/5/2008 practical to be able to achieve that. Councilman Ryan is correct in the statement that is in the judgment entry from 1980 or so. Also, in the state statute there is an obligation when you form a regional transit authority to provide transportation coterminous with the jurisdictional areas of the parties that have joined together. It's probably not a bad idea for the suburban mayors to get together and look at the issue. He doesn't know how the eastern or southeastern mayors feel; but, if everybody in the suburbs is struggling with this and is paying in a disproportionate share to what they are getting back in service, it might be potential legal action by the Mayors and Managers against RTA. A declaratory judgment action perhaps as to whether or not they are fulfilling their statutory duty to provide service on a county-wide basis. Perhaps the Mayor would like to take the idea to the Mayors and Managers Assoc. see whether or not there is an interest in beginning something. Mayor O'Grady said it makes a lot of sense and is something to be considered. With regard to Mr. Gareau's suggestion of a resolution, he agreed and would sign on as well so the administration and Council can speak as one on behalf of our citizens. The cause of this difficulty is also with the Ohio General Assembly. We have very clear evidence that the percentage of the budget that goes to transportation assets in the State of Ohio is the second lowest in the country-we are 49t". In this issue, he would fully support and sign on with Council a resolution which could be sent to RTA, the Governor and the General Assembly with the message to do their part to fund regional transportation. At this point, there was a discussion regarding the proposed resolution and the scheduling of a special Council meeting. It was agreed to hold a special Council meeting at 6:55 p.m. on Monday, August 11, 2008 for the passage of a resolution in opposition to the RTA service cuts. 6) Victor Jacko, 24633 Randall Drive, said years ago a federal organization called UMTA (Urban Mass Transit Authority) had stepped in when RTA wanted to cut bus routes. UMTA said any regional transit authority had to justify the advantage to the people before the cuts would be allowed. Law Director Dubelko noted that UMTA has been disbanded, and the FTA (Federal Transportation Authority) has taken its place. The FTA doesn't have the same approach to protecting the interests of small, independent bus lines within a region that UMTA used to. In fact, it was UMTA that came to the aid of NOMBL in the late 1970's and early 1980's. At the time, federal policy was attempting to promote small, independent bus lines within regional areas as sort of a grassroots type of innovative bus lines. UMTA intervened back then and pretty much told RTA, even though you won all the legal battles, you can't take NOMBL over. Unfortunately, UMTA is gone. When RTA attempted its second take-over of the bus line, which was ultimately successful in 2004/2005, the city attempted to go back to Washington through the efforts of Congressman Kucinich and Mayor Musial. We got a deaf ear from the federal government. They didn't care any longer. They were all for regional bus lines and cutting costs by getting rid of these little independent operators that had double 14