Good evening. Welcome to the
July 14th C-TRAN Board of
Directors meeting. If you would,
please stand and join me for
the Pledge of Allegiance. I
pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United.
>> States of America. Republic.
>> Cyndie, will you please call
the roll?
>> Yes. Matt.
>> Kol present.
>> Wil Fuentes. Bart Hanson.
Kim Harless present. Tim Hein
present.
>> Sue Marshall here.
>> Anne. McEnerny Ogle present.
Erik Paulsen here. Joshua waits
here. Glen Yung here.
>> All right, moving on to the
approval of the agenda, are
there any additions or changes
to the agenda? I would
entertain a motion to approve
the agenda. So we have a motion
and a second from Paulson.
Harless all those in favor, say
aye, I. All right. Moving on.
Next to public testimony or
communication, testimony is
limited to three minutes. We
ask that comments shall be
respectful and courteous to all.
As a reminder, you can email
comments to the clerk of the
board and these will be
accepted as part of the public
record. Will now be opening the
public testimony. I will take
in the first person first and
starting with number two. Do I
have a Where's Eric?
>> Oh, there we go.
>> Eric starts with number two.
Do we have somebody online for
number one?
>> Oh.
>> There's no number one. We're
going to start off with Douglas
tweet.
>> No that's red. This red is
on okay. Not green. All right.
Okay. Thank you. Board. My name
is Douglas. Tweet from Camas.
So last month I submitted this
today. You should have a copy
of it. So I believe it was at
last month's workshop. It was
proposed about a light rail
possibly be extended throughout
Vancouver urban growth boundary
over the next 20 years. Putting
it in the plan. I believe this
is completely unnecessary. From
a recent article by
Representative John Lee, C-TRAN
annual ridership peaked in 1999
at 7.75 million, and it dropped
to 5.9 million in 2019, before
the pandemic reached a pandemic
low of 3.3 million in 2021 and
now has recovered about 4.9
million. But that's still 37%
below the 1999 peak. Meanwhile,
what's happened to Clark
County's population? That's 26
years span. That's a lot of
time. And the U.S. Census
Bureau of from a year ago,
there's a little over half a
million 532,000 in Clark County.
In the 2000 census, it was
345,000 now. So basically,
population has gone up in
ridership has gone down. So
let's quantify that. With the
per capita, we divide ridership
by population. We obtain the
per capita ridership. And
that's an indication basically
of popularity maybe the size of
the market of people who want
to use it. So if we take a look
in the table, we've got the
1999 2000 time frame, the per
capita ridership 26 years ago
was 22.5 boardings per year,
per person. In 2025, that
dropped to 9.2. That's a 59%
drop. Now, if in the next two,
if we want to increase that per
capita ridership, we have to go
up by two and a half times to
get to numbers. That was 26
years ago. That's a a lot. And
26 years ago, everything was
done with busses, with
satisfying people, with serving
people's needs. It's not
expensive. Didn't even have BRT.
So there's absolutely no need
to spend billions upon billions
upon billions of dollars
expanding rail throughout Clark
County, ripping up roads and
all the rest. So. And if we
take a look, well, what about
Portland? Portland's got light
rail all over the place. Well,
as I reported, I think it was a
week, a month ago. Ridership
has dropped on on max light
rail. And ridership is a third
to one half of their forecasts.
So there's a big drop. And
light rail is not the answer to
increase ridership. It just
wastes an awful lot of money.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next up Margaret
tweet.
>> Good afternoon board.
>> This meeting is being
recorded and summarized.
>> The C-TRAN board is called
the Clark Transportation Public
Benefit Area. Yet it's
transformed into the Vancouver
Transportation area by altering
the board composition.
Vancouver now has four board
members plus two county members
who represent mostly Vancouver
districts, six out of nine
seats on the board at the
county board member from North
County District five and seven
out of nine board members are
pushing light rail against the
votes of citizens. Two token
lesser city representatives
seem open to affordable transit
options, like busses and vans
that run on roads that serve
all. In 2012, every city,
including Vancouver in Clark
County, plus limited areas
allowed to vote in the county,
rejected the C-TRAN ballot
proposition to extend Oregon's
Trimet's Max light rail into
Clark County over an I-5 bridge
in 2013. An advisory vote to
oppose any light rail project
in Clark County unless it is
first supported by a majority
of voters in a county wide vote
of the people was passed by 68%
of voters. That 2013 vote is
reflected in a 2022 Clark
County resolution to oppose
every light rail project in
Clark County, unless it is
first approved by a majority of
voters in a county wide
advisory vote of the people.
The resolution is posted at the
Clark County website and should
direct policy decisions. Yet it
has been ignored by all the
Clark County councilors now on
the C-TRAN board. Clark.
Councilor Belkot from a mostly
county area district two upheld
our votes and urged far less
costly bus and van service and
was abruptly removed from the
board for it. Roads are the
lifeblood of our communities,
connecting residents with
needed goods and services.
Public, private and commercial
vehicles. At a recent workshop,
Vancouver board member Paulson
pushed for transit oriented
development built around a
fixed rail system, stating that
would catalyze much more
development. Vancouver board
member Ogle asked this board to
give Vancouver time to put
forward a plan to include light
rail within the city limits and
the Vancouver Urban growth
boundary, to be included in the
2045 plan. Portland took that
approach with both street and
whatever. Anyway, light rail
and another rail system in
downtown businesses are closing,
and fire sales of once active
business buildings have been
reported, often in recent
months, where rail runs on city
streets, as it does in Portland.
Crossing the tracks is
hazardous and pedestrians are
killed. I'm thinking of Aaron,
who was a high school junior 16
years old, when he was hit by a
tri-met train using the
pedestrian crossing at the
station in Gresham. Here we
have in 2022, 48 hours apart,
max trains hitting people. And
if you look back in the years,
there's many incidents. We have
a woman attacked and robbed at
a Parkrose transit station, a
Max train rapist sentenced. And
more. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next up, Carmen
de Leon.
>> It's not green. Oh it's
working. Yeah. So my name is
Carmen de Leon and I go by Melo.
So the first thing I'd like to
say is that, you know, the the
trust of the public is of the
utmost importance and you've
lost it. When I figured out, I
guess one of you said that that
these what are they? Vine stops
are actually Max stops because
you're charging. You're already
charging the public for Max for
light rail stops because those
are not buying stops. Those are
for light rail. So you already
have it in there to trick the
people into believing that
they're getting the vine, when
actually they're getting stuff
for light rail that we don't
need. We're not Europe. We
don't even have 2000 200,000
people. So can we please stop
taking people's money for your
fantasy that we live in Europe
because we don't. In 1994, 2012,
2013, Clark County voters
rejected light rail. Why aren't
you listening to the public?
Why don't you care what the
people have said? Why don't you
understand that people want
their freedom, they want their
cars. That's why I have
suggested jetpacks. Because if
you put 100,000 people in
jetpacks, you would get rid of
100,000 cars. But you guys
don't want to look at the
future. You want to look at the
past trains from 100 years ago
that are over budget. And on
the other side of Mill Plain,
there are hundreds of, I don't
know how many miles of unused
railroad tracks, but yet you
want to finance more. It
doesn't make any sense at all.
And I looked at your agenda and
you talked about safety. Well,
guess what I got on the max the
mill plain bus, and I was
yelled at and threatened by the
driver. I went to another one
and the chick driving was
yelling and screaming at me and
being rude. So yeah, I
understand safety. But you know,
if you're going to, if you're
going to dish it out, don't you
can't expect not to get it back.
So when you've got drivers
being aggressive to excuse me,
but my leg was hurting that day
and I used my cane, a little
old lady with a cane. And
that's who your bus drivers
want to yell at. And you wonder
why ridership is down. Maybe
because the riders are being
threatened by the drivers. The
drivers are just treating us
like crap, thank you very much.
And they told me that they were
going to educate the guy and
not fire him, because you're
desperate for people to drive
the bus because you don't have
enough employees. Go figure.
Anyways, the drivers are rude,
you're running off fumes,
you're running off the welfare
ride because this is all
government funded. Like I said,
I've been on that Max. I mean,
the the devine I tried to pay,
I push, I push, it won't even
light up. It's been like 2 or 3
weeks. I haven't paid because
you guys haven't gone out there
and fixed the thing that
collects the money, because who
cares? You've got the
population's money by the
billions and you're just going
to lie to them and say, hey,
this is for vine, when actually
it's for light rail. And that's
not right, because you would be
saving money if you made actual
bus stops instead of light rail
bus stops that nobody wants,
and you should put it to
another vote to the public and
see where they stand on light
rail, because most people don't
want to pay $1 billion to go
three hours on a bus ride or
max.
>> Do we have anybody on the
line?
>> We do.
>> All right.
>> Wahler if you could please
unmute yourself. When I give
you the option to. Star six to
unmute yourself.
>> Thank you. This is Joe
Kunzler. Sure. I'm trying to
this is Joe Kunzler. Can
everyone hear me?
>> Yep.
>> All right. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. This is Joe Kunzler.
I just have some comments for
the C-TRAN board. I understand
you are still playing around
with trying to partner with
Tri-met. I got some news for
you. August 26th, 2026. Will
become bus Geddon for Tri-met
34 lines will have their
service adjusted. Max green
line will be trimmed instead of
going from Clackamas into
downtown Portland, the Green
Line will be trimmed from
Clackamas to Gateway Transit
Center. Cutting, cutting, a
direct ride for many citizens
and also frequency among its
route. I highly encourage
C-TRAN to. Reject any expansion
of Max and to tell Trimet to
heal itself. There's just no
way this is going to work. And
of course, as we all know, and
we're all transit fans here,
busses are the blocking,
tackling, passing and catching
of transit football. It's the
basics. And when you have a.
You want a partner for transit
agency that is making massive
cuts to busses, you have to ask
yourself, is this a network
that you want to partner with?
There's also been negotiations
with the Trimet union between
management and the Trimet
unions regarding your. You know,
regarding future layoffs. Why
add to that situation? I know
all of you public servants have
your heart in the right place,
but it's a question you have to
ask yourself. You have to care
about the little people and
about that the last few miles
and the first few miles to
light rail. I know this as a
regular sound transit rider
that I still need busses to
connect to sexy light rail
around Sound Transit. I. I know
it's frustrating to hear these
kind of comments, but. C-TRAN.
If Representative John Lay is
correct, you have $200 million
cash on hand. You have
investment earnings, you have
ridership going up a dramatic
and. You know, you have a lot
of cash on hand and you have a
successful bus rapid transit
system that you should simply
expand to and from Max and save
some money for both parties.
That is my advice and counsel
this evening. I want to thank
all of you for your public
service and and your continued
commitment to listening to the
public. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And that ends
public comment. Now we're going
to be moving over to action
items. I'm sorry. We're going
to be moving over to the
consent items. And does anybody
have anything they would like
to pull from consent?
>> Do I hear a motion?
>> I move approval of the
consent agenda. This is Marchel.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a
second. All those in favor say
aye.
>> Aye. Opposed?
>> Okay. Moving on to action
items. Action item number one
adoption of the C-TRAN Public
Transit Agency Safety plan PTA
SP and safety performance
targets staff report 26-029
with. With Chief Operating
Officer Nannette John.
>> Good evening, Chair and
Board of directors. As you know,
I'm Annette Shaw, the chief
operating officer. But I also
serve as chief at a as C-TRAN
chief safety officer. And today
I'm asking that you adopt
C-TRAN. Updated 2026 Public
Transportation, Public
Transportation Agency Safety
Plan and our 2026 safety
performance targets. So for
those that do not know or who
are unaware, why do we have the
agency safety plan? Because we
take FTA formula funds. We are
required to maintain a written
agency safety plan. This plan
documents our approach to
managing safety. This plan gets
reviewed and updated every year
by myself, the and the safety
committee. So we have the main
update that we had this year is
our safety risk reduction
program. Mitigations in
response to missed performance
targets for the 2025 reporting
year, the updated PDX includes
new safety risk mitigations
identified and recommended by
the Joint Labor Management
Safety Committee. We also have
updated safety performance
targets. The annual safety
performance targets have been
updated based on the three year
rolling average of data
submitted to the NTD, and that
encompasses fatalities, safety
events, injuries, system
reliability and transit worker
assaults. One one piece of good
news that I would like to note
is that transit assaults on
transit workers have dropped
consecutively for C-TRAN for
the past three years. We're
very, very proud of that. So
again, we ask that the C-TRAN
board of directors authorize
the Chief Executive Officer to
adopt the updated 2026 C-TRAN
Public Transportation Agency
Safety plan and updated safety
performance software.
>> All right. Comments.
>> Thank you. I would just ask
if you could possibly, maybe
highlight some of the
differences in the plan versus
the old one.
>> Yeah. So when we anytime
that we miss our safety
performance targets the safety
committee, we have to come up
with a risk mitigation on why
we missed the targets and a
corrective action for those
targets. So what we did was we
updated the the plan. We put an
appendix in there of the
targets that was missed, what
our corrective actions were,
and including the the dates
that we're going to have those
corrected.
>> Other comments. Motschman.
>> I'll move approval of the
updated C-TRAN Public
Transportation Agency safety
plan.
>> Second.
>> We have a motion and a
second and no further comment.
All those in favor say aye.
>> Aye, aye. Opposed? All right.
>> That is approved. Now moving
on to communications. One from
the chair. I was writing the 71
last night. And I tell you it
was it was a memorable event as
a lot of the stops on 71 are
under construction, especially
in the northern part of
Vancouver. Would like to remind
riders to take that into
consideration, being safe,
going around the construction
areas to get to the crosswalks
and utilize those. That's
really all I have
communications from the board.
>> Thank you. Chair. Two things
I'd like to thank you for your
update. Always appreciate it.
And then just a reminder, and
thank you to C-TRAN for
providing transit. And during
Kamea days on July 25th, that
goes over very well. And it's
very efficient and crowded
downtown. So thank you very
much.
>> Chair. If I could, I just
want to also thank the C-TRAN
staff and for their help with
our 4th of July Ridgefield's
4th of July celebration. It is
always a success and we have
for the last couple of years
had C-TRAN provide shuttle
service from the junction all
the way down to our downtown
area, and that has been an
enormous assist to us. And I
think we're estimating
somewhere around 10,000 people
coming into town that day. And
so the shuttle service that you
provide is immensely helpful.
So thank you for that. We
appreciate your partnership.
>> Any other comments? Moving
on. The Chief Executive Officer.
>> Thank you, chair. And as
mentioned, with the 4th of July
celebrations, we did
participate in the Ridgefield
Shuttle Service. I think we
carried right now, the
preliminary preliminary numbers
are about 1200 passengers that
we transported each way. So we
enjoy being able to participate
in the parade and help with the
challenges of parking and
everyone getting around the
traffic there. And also, we
also participated in the Eccles
Freedom Parade as well that
weekend. So thank you to all
our operators, maintenance
employees, supervisors, and
support staff who helped make
these events possible and
represent C-TRAN so well in our
community. An update for our
the 2045 plan. If we recall,
last month we had a meeting to
discuss our 2045 plan. As we've
continued to develop the draft
plan, there was some topics and
conversation of wanting to
adjust the future of C-TRAN.
And so we've been working
closely with our regional
partners, particularly the city
of Vancouver, to ensure that
we're building a shared vision
with the partners for the
future and transit in Clark
County. This plan will reflect
just how much C-TRAN has
evolved and the momentum we've
built over the past several
years. Our investment in high
capacity transit corridors have
been incredibly successful,
successful, and they've
increased capacity, improved
travel times, driven ridership
growth across the system, and
supported economic development
and housing opportunities
throughout our community. At
the same time, we're planning
for what's next. Clark County
continues to grow, and our
transit system must continue
evolving alongside it. So that
means thinking beyond today's
solution and remaining flexible
as new technologies emerge and
transportation needs change.
Our goal is to preserve and
strengthen our network of
existing and future high
capacity corridors, while
ensuring we have the
flexibility to adapt as the
region grows. We're not
bringing a final plan tonight,
but we will continue the
conversations through the next
few weeks until our September
board meeting, and at that time,
we will look to have more
updated information to share.
Clark County Fair is coming up
next month. That's just around
the corner. Once again, C-TRAN
will provide free shuttle
service from eight locations
throughout Clark County.
Mastering it make making it
easier for families to enjoy
the fair and reducing
congestion. Shuttle schedules
and information is available on
the website, and you'll
continue to see promotional
outreach over the weeks. C-TRAN
will also be participating in
upcoming community events, as
mentioned by member Tim Hine.
Battleground Harvest Days,
Sorry, Camas Days, Grand Parade,
Grand Parade on 25th
Battleground Harvest Days on
July 18th, and the Center's Our
Days celebration on July 25th
as well. So we encourage
everyone to stop and say hello
if you're attending any of
these events, and I'd like to
thank those members, board
members that have been able to
meet with over the past few
weeks Tim Hine, Wil Fuentes
Glenn and Eric, thank you for
taking the time to meet with me,
and I look forward to meeting
with the others that we I know
we have scheduled in the future,
in the next few weeks. And once
again, a reminder that the
August board meeting is
canceled. We will be concluding.
We will be. We will start back
in September. Thank you.
>> Legal counsel. Do you have
any. Okay. Thank you, thank you.
Now we're going to go ahead and
adjourn and then go into
executive session pursuant to
RC W 4230 .1101 B to discuss
potential property acquisition
as time is estimated at 20
minutes and no action will be
taken. And it is now 555