Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 28
>> 28 is to receive briefing from city of Austin and lone star rail staff on urban rail.
>> thank you.
>> good morning.
>> judge, Commissioners, appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today to give you a status report on rail in our community.
I wanted to start off by just some introductions.
I'm robert good, assistant city manager for the city of Austin.
working both for lone star rail and for the city of Austin.
joe black is lone star rail's rail director and operations manager.
we have rob spiller from the city of Austin, our transportation director and carla deleon is from the city of Austin.
appreciate the opportunity to give you a quick briefing on rail if our city.
I want to step back for a moment before we launch with rob and mention that we're focused on multimodal transportation option.
how we can help implement that vision that our regional partners have adopted.
so this is just one element and one tool in our toolbox in transportation system rail that we're going to speak on today, but we wanted to make sure that you knew.
we would like to come back at obviously your indulgence to brief you on more of the overall transportation system the city of Austin is working on.
rob spiller is leading our strategic mobility plan at this point and that again is all encompassing in how we can help implement the 2035 plan.
I'm going to turn it over to rob spiller and he's going to talk about rail.
>> thank you, robert.
judge Biscoe, Commissioners, simply put, what we're here today, both the city of Austin and lone star, along with our partners, cap metro, are here to present the fact or an update, as robert said, on what we're doing to work toward delivering the regional rail plan as adopted by campo in the 2035 process.
that plan begins with the metro rapid, which we all know is operating between southwest downtown Austin and -- or southeast downtown Austin and Leander, and providing service on a daily basis for over 2,000 riders a day, but it also includes the city of Austin's urban rail proposal as part of that system that provides the connective tissue, if you will, between the commuter services that cap metro is delivering and the central employment areas of downtown Austin, the capital complex and the university of Texas and points elsewhere that we'll be showing you today.
it also include as future extending capital metro, metro rail service out to mainer and elgin, but looks at providing innercity service between Austin, georgetown and eventually san antonio through our partners at lone star.
the thing that I want to leave you with is the importance of urban rail as part of that investment, as we connect ourselves to our sister cities, to the south and to the north, as we connect ourselves to our suburban communities throughout Travis County and our surrounding counties, we need to think of this as a system network, that we need to be able to connect those workers from their commute into the central employment centers where they get off the red line or the future lone star rail service at seholm and how they get to other connections in the city.
that is how urban rail and other projects that we are partnered with capital metro really come into play in terms of getting people not just that last mile but throughout our dense urban core to the major employment centers.
one of the things that I think is very exciting that is evolving quickly is a new partnership between the city of Austin, capital metro and lone star rail and hopefully other partners within the region.
it looks to create a partnership whereby working together we will find a common rail operator or a common operator that will focus on that commuter traffic.
as we continue to grow as a city from I believe Commissioner Gomez, as you said, a small to medium size city into a larger city, how are we going to carry those people into our central employment areas into the next coming 20, 30 years, as we start to think about how we keep that central core of Travis County healthy, I'm thinking about the downtown central employment and educational centers in town.
one of the things that I want to talk to you about this partnership is it's very much in its formational stage.
they've begun to talk about that structure.
there's an opportunity for Travis County and other major partners to participate in that, as you will hear from robert previously and later in my presentation after joe presents something on lone star rail, we'll be talking about wanting to come back to you and work with your staff and ask permission to work with your staff to discuss ways how Travis County might participate in this evolving partnership as we contemplate about expanding and delivering the adopted regional rail plan that campo has included in their regional plan.
>> what regional rail plan at campo?
>> Commissioner, that is the rail pieces that we are adopted through the -- recommended through the twig into the 2035 plan, that includes the current operating red line, capital metro red line, the lone star investments that are included in the campo 2035 plan, as well as the proposed urban rail and metro rapid bus lines as well, and that's my understanding is the adopted transportation plan for the region and so as part of that, those are those investments.
>> so you're calling the various rail projects that are included in the 2035 plan the campo regional rail plan?
>> as it currently stands, yes, ma'am, I am.
certainly, that plan will evolve over the time frame, especially as we start to develop the 20 -- what would it be, 2040 plan at this point in the next year.
but certainly what we have adopted in the regional transportation plan is the basis for moving forward with that plan.
>> okay.
>> yes, ma'am.
>> does that make -- you mentioned a couple of things there that kind of caught my ear, and especially when you got in the elgin area.
and it appears that right now we're talking about $1.3 billion of funding.
now, I don't know if it's all general obligation bonds, cos or the three partners that you mentioned earlier, being cap metro, city of Austin, and also lone star were participating at different levels.
my concern is this, and I think I have stated this over and over again, and I want to make sure that whatever we do, if the -- if you have the county's participation in this, whatever we do, I want to make sure that the residents within precinct have full knowledge of what you're doing and what you're proposing.
I would not like to make a decision on anything unless we have an informed electorate because general obligation bonds, the electric -- the residents -- for a vote would have to be highly educated on what we're talking about.
right now we're just looking at a possibility of $1.3 billion of a combination of maybe different funding mechanism.
I don't really know how this broke down.
and then again, is this the final amount, this $1.3 billion, just concluding amount of funding that it will take to do the project that you have envisioned especially where it goes through -- not especially, but also including the maynor and I elgin area, and we have a lot of urban persons within this arena also.
so I would want to impress upon you and I think I mentioned before, I think the voters and the person that helped to pay the bill here in Travis County should have full knowledge of what we're doing here, and I would know from my point of view as Commissioner of precinct 1, I will want to make sure that that happens, especially for the residents within precinct 1, and I don't think that is too much to ask for.
>> [ applause ]
>> thank you, Commissioner, we're really at a beginning process with Travis County to start that discussion and that's what we'll be asking you about later in the process, the authorization to work with your staff to begin that discussion, we're not here to ask you for funding today.
>> I know.
>> but later you may.
and I am just laying down the ground rules when you come to Commissioner Davis.
>> I understand.
>> actually I believe almost a year ago the mayor made public remarks on the steps of city hall with regard to asking the Commissioners court for financial participation, so I think the ask has already been made, but we haven't had much interface between staff at this point.
>> nor the community from what I'm hearing.
>> we're working hard right now.
>> yeah.
>> the tools could be in that toolbox for a financial plan, that's why again we're asking for your permission to start working with your staff to say how could --
>> the invitation has been open.
the door has been open for more than a year now, and we haven't seen much yet.
and, you know, I am a huge proponent of rail and I really want to participate.
I really want to be involved in making this thing happen.
the invitation is wide open.
>> great.
>> and it has been for some time.
and I -- I have been a little frustrated, frankly, at leaving the invitation open and sort of being -- left sitting at the restaurant waiting for my date to show up.
frankly.
>> [laughter] and as far as the transit working group having made a recommendation for a regional rail plan to campo, we all know at that did not occur and the transit working group hasn't met in a very, very long time, so as far as -- I get it that we do have at least a vestigial comprehensive rail plan in that all rail projects that have been approved as part of the long range plan could be termed a regional rail plan, but I think in all reality I think we have to admit to ourselves that that is not actually a regional rail plan, that is a collection of projects.
>> [ applause ]
>> have we given you a chance to make your presentation.
you have nol 10 thirlts to do it.
>> I would like to turn the presentation over to mr. Black to start with the discussion of lone star.
>> I'll try to keep this as brief as we can.
I know we're pressed for time.
I want to update the court.
thank you, your honor, Commissioners for inviting us today.
>> thank you for coming.
>> our members and service areas span an area about 117-miles from georgetown all the way down to south san antonio.
it includes the cities and counties, the transit agencies which we're working very closely with, the two keystone cities and the rural areas, the mpos and also like to point out that we are accountable to the citizens through our board representation which includes the representation, Commissioner Huber, and our representative, Commissioner eckhart.
about 117-miles from georgetown to south san antonio up to 16 stations at our full service level.
15 to 20 round trips a day at full service.
7 days a week in each direction.
some people ask us I need to go the other way, I need to go north, when I say that.
I need to make sure that people know we go both directions.
primarily routed in the existing rail right of way of the union pacific railroad, so won't entail very much new construction besides stations and parking lots.
I won't be labor these numbers but these are some of the financial and economic benefits that have been defined for the lone star project and two reports that we did in 2004 and 2006 which we will be updating as part of the eis process.
even if you think these numbers are wildly, wildly optimistic, I would say have them and you still have a pretty good economic boost to the area, to the corridor.
in terms of what is going on right now with the project, we are working on the environmental engineering studies on the passenger route which is georgetown to san antonio.
very specifically we're looking at station locations and we're working with cities and county staffs in all of these locations to identify the places that will be best suited to advance to the community for later public comment as part of the eis process and getting the community involved.
we're currently updating our financing plan, how we're going to pay for this.
we're currently updating our ridership policies, high speed rail project.
we are not beginning urban rail bypass studies, we're in the middle of the study with union pacific railroad.
we're initiating local funding discussions for the annual operations and maintenance costs with our local partners and jurisdictions.
I would like to point out for lone star rail, urban rail is a force multiplier for us.
when you add urban rail, lone star raymond, it's not one plus one plus one, it adds up to something more than 3.
it multiplies the effectiveness of the threal is and that's the reason why we are working with the city on the urban rail project.
so I -- I'm not sure there's any questions, I would like to turn it over to rob spiller again to give a briefing on the urban rail project.
>> I would like to thank lone star rail for keeping the county very much informed with what you all are doing and having already met with financial staff with regard to any kind of participation that the county might contemplate or you might contemplate asking from the county.
it's stark difference from the city of Austin.
>> thank you, joe, with yowr permission I will continue here shortly.
>> please do.
>> next, please.
judge, Commissioners, as you know, we've been working on a strategic mobility plan.
we partnered with your staff on several projects coming out of that bond proposal, one of the things we routinely heard, and I believe your staff heard as well, that the compute -- the community is concerned about accessing in and out of our central core, and of course your central core, Travis County, is the same as the city of Austin central core.
repeatedly what we heard is that Travis County and the city of Austin have a major concern as we look forward over the next 20 or 30 years, how do we keep that heart of our region alive?
and I think that is really the issue that we're looking to start to solve with working with your staff is how do we keep that economic engine that is important both to the county and to the city alive as we look forward over the next 20 or 30 years.
when we think about the community or the city in the central area, what we have to realize is that we have very little ability to build new roads in and out of the central part of Austin, and as this region continues to expand and continues to grow, you know, Austin is unique amongst Texas cities in that our primary educational and business and economic engine is still at the center of our region.
and as we continue to grow and more people continue to want to get to this very important area in central Austin, that creates a pressureization, if you will, of travel modes, and so the same grade system in much similar the same roadway system here in Austin feeding this core has to increasingly deal with more people from the manor and elgin area from, the south buda and san marcos area and north and west as well.
what we believe is happening is we in a sense have an hour glass system is that all of that pressurizes into a central, very small gateway into central Austin and opens back up, I know all of you here work in downtown Austin and so you know that our grid system is actually pretty -- pretty good during most of the day.
yes, during the peak of the peak we have some congestion, but we actually have lots of capacity in downtown t problem is getting to that central Austin area.
and so that in a sense is our issue.
how do we get across that band of constraint, given an environment where it is going to be difficult to expand new roads dramatically?
now, that is not saying roads are bad.
actually, what we heard from the public is quite the opposite, that we need to throw our entire toolbox at our mobility challenge here in Austin, and in fact that is the task that the city is attempting to take and hopefully with your help we'll continue to take.
we have partnered with Travis County on projects such as the y and I know have heard many voices of support on other projects such as the new interchange completion at ben white and mopac and similarly we're partnering with other organizations to build new roads where we can.
we are working with txdot to expand the capacity or find innovative ways to expand the capacity of ih-35, so we can receive more demand from the manor and elgin area as well as the 290 area to bring people into central Austin.
that won't be enough.
that's a key point.
we need to start thinking about investments in new capacity, new types of capacity that can bring that next 30 or 40,000 people into downtown central Austin that includes the capital complex, we've heard the state capitol, facilities commission talking about moving a number of new employment centers downtown as well as continued desire by the university of Texas to enlarge.
so the question I think before in terms of mobility is how do we keep this engine going?
how do we keep this way of life successful as we go forward.
the slide in front of you shows a number of projects that are underway, some of those funded by our 2010 bond program, but another number of those projects simply funded by other resources that the city brings to the table.
so it's important that the city's approach is not just rail or just roads.
that really is a moot issue.
the issue needs to be is defining the problem and the corridor in which the problem exists and what the right solution is.
and so when we think about urban rail, specifically serving the central Austin area, the purpose or the program purpose is to really answer how do we get the next 20 or 30,000 people there, we're looking to provide not only greater mobility but greater capacity, person-moving capacity in and out of central Austin.
it is wonderful that lone star is moving forward and cap metro is successfully operating commuter rail into southeast Austin, but the question becomes how do we move those people to the major destinations once they're in the city, and within that interring of congestion we're looking to improve access connection, support the city's environmental goals as well as economic goals because this is very much about the economic health of central Travis County and Austin, and how we encourage that investment as we move forward.
I want to briefly go over the proposed system as Commissioner Davis has heard.
it is a 16 and a half mile electrified double tracked system.
it is light rail.
we termed it urban rail because we're proposing to contemplate using slightly smaller vehicles, maybe that run independently as opposed to trains into multiple trains.
but it is light rail.
we are looking at systems to maximize the dedicated running way that we've heard from the public is important, so that means transit only lanes on some of our downtown streets.
it means using center-running medians on our outer corridors as we move out, and it does include two north-south routes through the cdb, the central business district, one of those in lavaca past the Travis County complex which I think should be important.
the other thing I think that is important is the proposed system is not a stand alone system, it is absolutely an expandable system and I think this is one of the areas where we can partner with Travis County to make sure that your needs in terms of internal is circulation into the core can be met.
but certainly we've planned this with extensions in mind and that goes beyond not only the first proposal as Commissioner Davis has mentioned, the $1.3 billion that has been thrown around in the news, but also well beyond the first investment as well.
so the plans are to reach out to the innercity and connect those commuter, innercity rail projects, and as joe has said, really transform those regional commuter systems into something that is a regional network of rail within our city.
and it is multiphased and that is important.
although the first system concept has come out of the 1.3 billion, I don't think that we're contemplating building $1.3 billion worth of rail as a first piece, so as you contemplate a network or a system of rail projects, it really is identifying priorities and pieces and so connecting the current assets up to the central employment areas and then adding capacity on the red line, adding the green line out toward the manor and gin areas, reaching out to Pflugerville and to the south are very important parts of that evolving plan.
just to go over the current network that's proposed, you see it here in the gold, it does serve the mueller community, is one of our targets, the university of Texas, very important that we're working with them to peers the center or the spine of their facility.
the state capital complex looking to see how we can help energize that investment, the downtown, the east riverside, and of course the airport.
to the east.
it connects with those emerging regional systems as we've talked about, really super charging both the lone star as well as the capital metro investments.
it adds transportation capacity, and I think that is important.
when you look at our unique mobility challenges of just flat out not enough ways to get employees into central Austin and central Travis County to maintain our long-term economic health, this provides a high capacity, people-moving ability to move people in and out of central Austin, fairly effectively, we believe.
in terms of partnering, we have in earnest begun that process.
we're talking to a number of organizations.
we are looking to partner not only with those that are seen there on the screen, but private organizations as well, but we've already reached out to the university of Texas and I know I've reached out to many of you individually, but also here today, the state of Texas, we're working both with the state facilities but I understand at this last chamber of commerce briefing on the state, the transportation, the chair actually identified the short coming of a roads only approach, that we need to invest in a full mobility toolbox so I'm encouraged by that.
we're also partnering with cap metro, although they couldn't be here today.
they've told us they're here in spirit with us and we're working with them to make sure their investments are true success within this region.
>> does capital metro own all the rails that's being proposed within Travis County?
>> they own the red line, sir, and the green line.
>> okay.
>> the proposal on the urban rail is that the city of Austin would construct and own it.
(one moment, please, for change in captioners...)
>> I have some serious concerns and my concerns -- is seriousness of them fall in the subject matter of outreach.
what I'm hearing from -- now, there are some residents in precinct 1 that have some knowledge what we're talking about here today, but there are a lot of folks that have no knowledge of what we're talking about here today.
and it has come to my attention, it was brought to my attention that there are things that are left out of the complete arena of exposing knowledge to segments of the community in precinct 1.
that's been brought to my attention.
they say they get no information, even though the city may be supporting it, but when it comes to sharing that information, it's kind of like a suspective outreach effort.
and they have some very legitimate concerns because of that.
now, I'm not the city of Austin.
I can't tell the who who they should go and outreach to and things of that nature.
I think that should be something at their discretion.
but from the Commissioner's point of view which I also represent residents within the city of Austin and those out in e.t.j.
within precinct 1, it's another municipality, I'm duly bound to make sure as many folks are informed what's going on as possible especially when I get knowledge of it.
so my concern at this point, and we did talk about this earlier, is at what stage of what we're talking about here will this be exposed to the residents in every quadrant of the county, whatever precinct it's in, 1, 2, 3 or 4.
I'd like to know when that's going to happen in all of this and if you can maybe give me some type of indication, I really would appreciate that because that's part of the -- part of what I'm hearing that people are having concern over, not having an opportunity to voice or echo what they feel about it especially if they have to pay for it.
and secondly, if it's at all possible, we just went through a lengthy process when we dealt with trying to issue before the voters in a referendum November 8th, we're putting before some bonds before the residents of Travis County to vote on.
and I hope they support those bonds.
but the bottom line is that we have several public hearings all throughout Travis County to gather input to what this is all about before the projects that Travis County was looking to take before the voters.
and those particular public hearings were very well participated, very well participated.
and so thus at the end of the day here we are going to -- the court has made a decision to place bonds, general obligation bonds before the voters of Travis County.
I would like to see something similar to what you are bringing here because of the fact that I'm hearing that only a segment of persons in Travis County are knowing what you are talking about at this point and then you got another segment that do not know what in the heck is going on.
so I just want to make sure that we have an informed citizens -- informed residents within Travis County, rather, knowing what we're talking about.
not that no one not supporting what you are saying or opposing it.
it's just my point is having knowledge of what we're talking about.
the what of the issue is what I think really needs to be laid out and I hope you can address that.
>> [applause]
>> thank you, Commissioner.
I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and get information on those sectors of the population you believe we need to better reach out to.
we have had an active public involvement process of course because we've been contemplating primarily a city investment up to this point.
>> what did the city say?
in other words, you already got partnerships here, you got the city of Austin, cap metro and also lone star.
my question is what have the city done within the city limits, because a lot of this is going through the city and some of it is outside the city through other metropolitan -- well, mainer to elgin, you know, that's out -- some of it goes through the e.t.j.
area, so my concern is what have they done up to this point to make sure that it's aware.
because there are folks that know about this already, but there's a lot of them that don't, so that's my concern what has been done up to this point.
>> we've been holding public meetings, although we have not held any in the last six, nine months.
we're getting ready to start an environmental process on the urban rail portion of the system and that will involve a greater number of outreach meetings and those public hearings that you talked about for the county projects will be similarly handled for any investment that's brought forward.
but we haven't quite gotten to that point where we would have those public hearings yet.
we're still in the planning process, so yes, sir.
>> well, thank you.
>> but I would like to work with you to better understand the specific areas of the community that you believe need to have better outreach because we would like to --
>> hopefully reach out to the city also.
I want you to reach out to the city of Austin also.
>> oh, yes we are.
>> for that same resolve.
>> uh-huh.
>> thank you.
>> court members, any other questions or comments?
>> not right now.
>> I have a couple.
>> Commissioner?
>> sorry.
I'm so enthusiastic about the development of rail inside this region and, you know, I'm already convinced of its absolute necessity in weaving a rail option throughout our regional transportation network.
so you don't have to sell me on that, of course.
and much of this document is about proving up that necessity.
and I -- I personally believe that's long since been proven, but I agree with Commissioner Davis, we do need to get out to the folks also outside the city of Austin to convince them of the -- not just the benefit but really, frankly, the necessity for our economic viability to have a rail option weaved into our transportation network.
I think the two big questions for me that remain unresolved and for very good reason, very, very good reason is how -- how will this effort be funded from a regional standpoint.
and when I say that, I don't just mean the downtown urban rail but the whole package, and, of course, the who will operate it.
I for one am not frightened of the idea of having several entities owning different components of the system.
that is actually a fairly traditional way of developing a regional rail system.
if you look at the large metropolitan areas of the eastern seaboard, that's exactly how they developed.
so I don't think that we should be afraid of the fact that we have lone star rail and cap metro and the city of Austin partnering on this.
I would hope actually that we even look to broaden the partnership of actual providers, owners of infrastructure and operators.
I'm very enthusiast about this and perhaps I came off a bit harsh at first.
>> oh, no.
>> it's only because I am enthusiastic about this and do feel that it perhaps has not been as robust a conversation regionally as it deserves to be.
>> is there an answer, ownership and funding.
>> I don't think we're contemplating having sort of a single monolithic ownership.
you don't want folks to have to buy a new ticket every time they get off, buy tickets.
we do have to insight them to try to get them out of their cars and cars are very convenient.
so we have to be very aTravis County I have and we need to work together to do that.
>> important to get them out of their cars for a certain portion of the day.
I see a great -- folks can come into their car for a park and ride facility that's attached to the rail facility and have the seamless experience there.
but I don't see an issue with that.
it's just, you know, we need to get cracking on it.
>> from a financial standpoint, Commissioner, the mayor and council have been asking that same question.
it's not that we have them informed and you not informed, we're still struggling with how that mix of funding sources will put together.
we're scheduled for a late Octoberen veiling to council about here are some of our tools.
be glad to share that with Commissioners court as well.
it's not like we have the plan put together and we just haven't shared it, we don't know yet.
we're still working on that.
>> I respect that and we too have been asking questions of staff and putting heads together.
for instance, I think some of you know this, counties do not have the authority to fund rail, per se.
so we do have the authority to do tax increment financing and alternative financing mechanisms for certain kinds of things.
>> certainly.
>> but this is a conversation that we need to be in.
>> absolutely.
>> in a very deep and robust way.
>> absolutely.
and we plan on that.
>> Commissioner Huber?
>> I have just two quick comments.
first on page 12 in your presentation, I would like to see Travis County added to the y at oak hill improvements.
>> yes, that would be --
>> since I imagine you use this in other places.
>> I apologize for that, Commissioner.
I was on vacation last week and didn't get prepared until yesterday.
>> in that same vein, I kind of in my own manner and style would like to seriously encourage you to reach out to us.
the only -- we participated in the y at oak hill and I found out about it and that there was a need for additional funds.
we need to reach out on the very front end.
the two downtown districts have been added to my district in the redistricting.
the only meetings I've had with city of Austin so far have been ones that I requested.
so I really would like to see city of Austin reach out more to us more on the front end before the decisions are made.
>> [applause]
>> thank you, Commissioner.
and I would welcome to explore ways.
as you've said the culture on how the county works and the city works is different and it is a learning experience for I think both our organizations and I would welcome an ongoing discussion about how we partner because there's opportunity there.
>> and structurally it's so different, it's going to take ongoing conversations to make things work well.
>> to just understand how it works.
>> unless there's objection, you are hereby authorized to work with county staff.
>> thank you, judge.
>> the culture at the county is that staff cannot make financial commitments.
>> we understand that.
I think that's common ground for us.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you all for your presentation.
thank you very much.
very informative.
>> mr. Reeferseed.
>> the figure they quoted 2,000 per day, that's not the average.
that's the most they were using and I'd like to be corrected if I'm wrong on that.
and if we even took them at their word to divide 2,000 into these huge costs per day will expose this wasteful scam.
I want to echo Commissioner Davis' concerns and answer one of your questions, Commissioner Davis, who pays most for this local funding?
we all know, it's the taxpayers.
folks who will never use any of this.
my idea so safe save money with the city and city and other entities, they could shift their times.
instead of having everybody come at 9:00, maybe have some come at 10:00 or there are other ways to solve transportation problems which are obviously there, we're a growing city, but we don't need to put these huge not cost effective so-called solutions into it because urban rail is a wasteful scam which physician transportation that could be made by using buses.
as businesses, schools, population even evidentably shift, that's what's going to happen.
so you dig a rail and people move in and out of the way and businesses, it just doesn't make any sense.
flexibility is not possible with ultra costly urban rail and also the obvious point low population density here.
unlike new york city or san francisco makes urban rail here not cost effective at all.
it's all part of a scam.
I know the comment they made expanding u.t., they very well use buses.
they use buses very effectively.
and so I'm denying their statement that expanding u.t.
does not in any way demand costly urban rail.
they might have been scammed into somehow going along with the planning but I can tell you as a student that's not -- that's not what I would want.
so just some points that were made -- that needed to be made to these guys and unfortunately -- fortunately you gave me a chance.
we will appreciate.
>> mr. Dafoe.
>> I formerly was a student at the student and I studying abroad in prague in the czech rep.
and they use trollies.
they are very efficient, very easy to ride.
I've also lived in a city called minneapolis, minnesota, in the past and they have light rail.
and while I say I did enjoy riding it, I will say that it was very inefficient.
all they had was one line and basically if you live in minnesota and minneapolis, the way to get around is by bus, not light rail.
so just something for y'all to consider from my own experience.
I would just like to say I demand as a citizen that a public hearing be set at the county level.
I would also like you guys to communicate with the city that they need to have a public hearing because they obviously do not want our voices heard.
I'm having my first amendments restricted so especially on light rail, to stay on topic, I believe we need to have a public hearing immediately because obviously city staff is going ahead of this, going ahead with it, and as citizens we need to give our input.
so I demand public hearing on this matter at the county level and I demand that you instruct the city to also hold a public hearing on this matter.
thank you.
>> [applause]
>> thank you.
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