Dec. 3: Board of Trustees and Committee Meetings, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Covered by Documenter Regina Samuels (live-tweets)
Next year’s RTA budget gets initial stamp of approval
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Board of Trustees is set to vote soon on the 2025 budget. Trustees received the final presentation on the 2025 budget from Kay Sutula, director of the Office of Management and Budget for RTA, on Dec 3.
Sutula said RTA’s expected revenue in 2025 is $364.5 million. About 73.4%, or $267.5 million, is estimated to come from sales and use tax. About $32 million, or 8.8%, is projected from passenger fares. She said ridership is expected to continue to grow in 2025.
Expenses are estimated to total $364.9 million. Major costs include $247.8 million on payroll, $25.5 million on services and supplies, and $13 million on fuel and utilities.
Sutula said a public hearing would be held directly after her presentation and questions from the board. But no public comments were made or submitted. A committee of trustees voted to send the proposal forward. The budget is set for a vote by the full Board of Trustees at its Dec. 17 meeting.
RTA wants to hire from Cleveland’s international community
RTA has partnered with Global Cleveland to attract immigrants and other international newcomers to RTA’s workforce.
Talent Acquisition Manager for RTA Fiona Gibbons presented details of the program to trustees. The program includes skill development and job readiness workshops, ensuring immigrant communities can access RTA services, building international networks, and using the knowledge immigrants from other, more transit-dependent countries may have.
According to Gibbons, RTA’s share of the cost for the program is $4,500 per year. The money helps pay for Global Cleveland’s Welcome Week for international newcomers to Cleveland, the Global Rising peer-matching program, professional consultations on resumes and job search, and help for issues with visas.
Global Cleveland Program Director Zachary Nelson presented data showing all the immigrant and newcomer populations around Cleveland, where they tend to live, the RTA lines that run through those areas, and the employers whose companies are located on those routes.
Several members of the board expressed interest in the report and asked Nelson to send it to them after his presentation.
Driver monitoring system contract set for renewal
RTA’s contract with Lytx for its driver monitoring technology is up for a five-year renewal. Julie Schultz, RTA’s acting director of Information Technology, explained the type of data that gets collected by the Lytx DriveCam system. It registers distractions and late driver responses and tracks throttle and braking speeds.
Schultz said the video and data is “critical for incident analysis and operator performance reviews. It’s utilized by our district’s safety and training departments.”
The agreement would cost RTA up to $921,760 over five years. A committee approved sending the contract renewal to the full board for a future vote.
Read the live tweets from Documenter Regina Samuels:
