MOTION TO APPROVE Interlocal Agreement for Transportation Surtax Services between Broward County and The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (“MPO”), retroactive to April 1, 2019 through December 31, 2024, providing for the MPO to develop a process to review, rank, and prioritize municipal projects based upon each project’s ability to alleviate traffic congestion and enhance connectivity; authorize the Mayor and Clerk to execute the Agreement; authorize the County Administrator to take all administrative and budgetary actions to implement the Agreement.
(Per the Tuesday Morning Memorandum, Signature Pages have been received.)
ACTION: (T-1:07 PM) Approved. (Refer to minutes for full discussion.) (See Yellow-Sheeted Additional Material, dated April 16, 2019, submitted at the request of the Office of the County Attorney.)
VOTE: 9-0. Commissioner Geller voted in the affirmative telephonically.
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COUNTY ADMINISTRATION, TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTS RECOMMEND APPROVAL.
This action is in furtherance of the Board's Value of "[C]ooperatively delivering an efficient and accessible regional intermodal transportation network" and the Goal to: "[S]upport a world-class intermodal transportation system including: a robust and reliable transit level of service, rail, intersection reconfiguration, adaptive signalization, and congestion relief."
On June 5, 2018 (Item No. 74) the County Commission enacted Ordinance No. 2018-29, the Broward County Transportation Surtax Ordinance (Title V, Section 311/2-71), which, among other things, provides a process by which any municipality within Broward County may apply for project funding from surtax proceeds. The process includes a request that the MPO review and rank all municipal projects based on each project's ability to alleviate traffic congestion and enhance connectivity.
The Interlocal Agreement (ILA) entered into among the County, MPO and 30 municipalities in 2018 (Item No. 1, August 21, 2018): establishes the MPO's commitment to review and rank municipal projects; commits that no less than 10% (inclusive of community bus service) of the total surtax proceeds received (the current estimate for total proceeds during the 30-year levy is $15.6 billion) would be used to fund municipal projects approved by the Oversight Board; and establishes periodic reporting and audit requirements.
On October 9, 2018 (Item No. 41), the Board approved the Final Regional Mobility & Transportation Enhancements Initiative ("Transportation Surtax Plan"), inclusive of the Financial Plan that was reviewed as part of the State's audit of the overall program performance and Transportation Surtax Plan. The Financial Plan breaks out the annual amounts available to participating municipalities in three categories: "City Projects", "City Project Contingency" and "Community Shuttle"; the total of which constitutes, over the 30-year life of the program, approximately 22% of expected revenues.
This Agreement is the result of a series of negotiations with MPO staff and Executive Committee members over the course of six months. The intent of this Agreement is to allow the MPO to use surtax proceeds to "stand up" the operations and systems required to accomplish the MPO's responsibilities as set forth in the Ordinance and existing multi-party ILA. This Agreement's Scope identifies that technical MPO staff paid for using surtax funds will establish municipal project evaluation processes, complete rankings, and transmit recommendations to the County's technical team, so that municipal projects can be funded annually and identified in a five-year plan for approvals. A County staff member will participate in the interviewing process for MPO staff hired using surtax proceeds. MPO technical staff have experience in the review, ranking, prioritization, programming, and coordination of municipal transportation projects and will modify existing processes with which municipalities are familiar to accomplish both the evaluation of projects currently contained in the Plan, as well as implement a process for accepting new applications annually. Early in 2020, the MPO will send the first set of recommendations for municipal projects that should be funded.
The exact municipal prioritization process to be utilized is not set forth in this Agreement, as it must be developed, but general application elements, timeframes, and processes are described in the Scope of Services and Budget.
This Agreement establishes a payment schedule for an initial period of five years in a not-to-exceed amount of $3,891,009; however, the parties have set forth a process by which the Agreement can be terminated only by mutual consent of both parties within the first five years. Invoices will be reviewed and only payment for actual costs will occur. The County recognizes that the MPO is a federally-funded entity with prescriptive responsibilities and the services provided under this Agreement are outside the MPO's federally-funded responsibilities. As such, the County is agreeing to remit quarterly payments of $129,610 (escalated annually at 5%), in advance of services being provided, and to use a quarterly and annual invoicing process to "true-up" costs of actual services rendered. Additionally, in recognition of start-up costs and fluctuating levels of service required over the initial term, the County is agreeing to remit a one-time payment in the amount of $494,235 for non-recurring specialized services necessary to complete the Scope of Services.
The Agreement received unanimous favorable action from the full MPO board on April 11, 2019. It has been reviewed and approved as to form and the County will sign last. The Board will be notified in the Monday Night or Tuesday Morning Memo when the three original, executed Agreements arrive.
A series of business terms sought by municipalities, the MPO, and County are not included in this Agreement, but are expected to be included as part of amendments to the multi-party ILA entered into in 2018 (Item No. 1, August 21, 2018). Specifically, it is anticipated that these amendments will: (1) allow the 203 municipal rehabilitation and maintenance projects included in the Plan (and any future submissions for rehabilitation and maintenance projects by municipalities) to be funded using a separate process, since they are unlikely to be prioritized in the MPO process (because they do not promote connectivity or alleviate congestion) and; (2) change the existing date of February 2020 for the first set of MPO recommendations to March 2020.
Ordinance amendments and Administrative Code recommendations are anticipated to be brought forward for Board action in May or June.
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