02.26.04
Cowan questions transit recommendations
Newport News Times
The Lincoln County commissioners, especially Jean Cowan, raised a number of questions Wednesday about the recommendations it received for elderly and disabled transportation funding from its Special Transportation Advisory Committee.
Cowan focused on the combination of a “shortfall in the (Lincoln County Transit District) request” and the major increase in funding recommended for the other applicant for whom funding was proposed, the Senior Companion program.
And she noted that despite the committee’s earlier identified need of a centralized dispatch, by funding Senior Companions at a higher amount, the transit district would be unable to proceed on a centralized dispatch project.
The commissioners also reviewed the unallocated funds that appear likely to be available next year.
According to a memo presented the commissioners by Bridget Dix, chairperson of the transportation committee and head of the Community Partnership Team, about $21,000 is estimated for cash carryover funds. That was the figure provided by county budget officer Jim Weider.
Based on Weider’s recommendations, the Special Transportation Advisory Committee allocated that cash carryover to provide $2,513 toward further efforts at transit coordination among Linn, Lincoln and Benton counties, and $15,000 in operating funds for the Community Partnership Team.
It would also mean carrying forward $486 in materials and services, $100 in personal services, and up to $3,000 in unallocated funds from the outgoing fiscal year.
In order to be able to expend it in the coming fiscal year, Weider explained that the funds need to be budgeted as carry-forward for the coming year, even if the actual sums carried forward are less than currently projected. One month remains of the current fiscal year.
Commissioner Don Lindly said that if the cash carryover remains, some if not all could be shifted to help Lincoln County Transit provide a combined dispatch service. Currently, both the transit district and the Community Partnership Team have part-time dispatchers, a situation the committee found to be duplicating itself and inefficient.
Cowan asked whether the $15,000cash carryover from the partnership team budget was to go for coordinating dispatch services.
“Not originally,” said Dix.
Committee proposals
For the coming fiscal year, the county will have $89,130 in state special transit funds to distribute.
The committee had been asked for $62,000 by the transit district, and for $44,850 by Senior Companions, a program sponsored by Lincoln Council on Aging. The committee recommended $53,000 for the transit district and $36,130 for Senior Companions.
Cowan said Wednesday that the committee recommendation gave Senior Companions a $16,000 increase from its previous fiscal year’s allocation of state special transit funds, but a minimal rise in funding for the transit district, which provides bus service throughout the county.
The current fiscal year’s Senior Companion funding from those state funds had been $20,130, although the non-profit had sought $42,250. This fiscal year, the county transit district was allocated $52,000 out of the $54,550 it had requested.
The transit district request included, according to coordinator Cynda Bruce, the same $52,000 from the previous year plus a 3.5 percent increase for gas costs and staff cost-of-living increases, as well as $8,500 toward a joint dispatch system she hoped to organize with the Community Partnership Team.
The total cost for a combined dispatch operation would be $12,000, Bruce said.
“So the recommended $53,000 would not cover your increased costs and let you also maintain operations?” Cowan asked.
“That’s correct,” said Bruce, adding that centralized dispatch is not included in that sum, either.
Last year, four other groups also applied for funds to the committee - the Community Partnership Team, the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz, the Olalla Center for Children and Families, and West Coast Winds.
Given the large rise in funding for Senior Companions, Cowan asked what added services that program planned to provide.
Dix, as committee chairman, said the sum would provide increased mileage reimbursement for Senior Companion volunteers. “They now get paid at 25 cents per mile, and that’s less than some other programs can offer, especially considering the gas prices today,” she said.
Cowan responded that while the 25 cents per mile may be less than agencies pay their staff, “most other volunteer programs don’t reimburse volunteer mileage at all.”
“Some do, like RSVP, the Retired & Senior Volunteers program,” replied Dix. RSVP, like Senior Companions, is a program of the Lincoln Council on Aging.
RSVP Director Mike O’Donnell said Thursday that the non-profit program reimburses its volunteers at a rate of 15 cents per mile, up to a maximum of $25 per month.
Cowan also noted that eligibility for the Senior Companion service is based not on income levels but on need for assistance.
Dix said Senior Companion volunteers are generally of low income. “It’s part of the program to provide a small stipend to people, $2.50 an hour,” she said. “It’s not necessarily a requirement, and there are some volunteers who do not get a stipend. But the focus is to provide some compensation to low-income seniors” who help others as volunteers.
“That is absolutely correct,” added Commissioner Don Lindly. “To be a companion, unless you volunteer completely, you need to be in a low-income bracket. And 25 cents a mile does not cover the costs of operating your automobile.”
Cowan, however, reminded the group, “most other volunteers are not reimbursed.”
The dispatch question
Commissioner Karen Gerttula addressed the issue of a consolidated dispatch system that was part of the proposal from the transit district. It included a request for funds to enable it and the Community Partnership Team to merge dispatch operations, and thereby avoid duplication and save costs.
Such a proposal is expected to save $6,000 annually.
The transit district application stated that if it did not receive the full requested funding, the first piece to go would be the planned joint dispatch, so as not to impact any existing program.
Cowan asked what would happen with the Oregon Department of Human Resources-sponsored dispatch program of the Community Partnership Team.
“Then I’m up the creek with my dispatcher,” answered Dix.
“I offer dispatch services a few hours a day, but if we join with the Lincoln County district dispatch, there would be somebody there available all day, and make for better service. And there might be instances where somebody takes a ride one way, but physically can’t stand and wait three or four hours and so needs a ride back home the other way.”
Gerttula said Dix’s proposal made sense, and asked whether the transportation committee, which is chaired by Dix, had a “clear understanding of all this” when it made its funding recommendations.
“I think they did,” said Dix. “That centralized dispatch was made a priority because that was on the top of unmet needs” last year.
“So STAC made centralized dispatch a high priority yet did not recommend funds for that? That mystifies me,’ said Cowan.
“Me, too,” said Dix. “I think the recommendation was that other source(s) of funds be explored and if cuts need to be made, other services recently started, like the evening bus runs, be re-evaluated.”
“But that’s outside the authority of the committee,” noted Cowan. “This committee only provides recommendations for the use of special transit funds - not for operation of special transit.
“I have some concerns with this large increase for one program without any increase in its services given to those individuals,” Cowan continued. “I am also concerned about the mixed message, that we need to provide this (central dispatch) service but we are not providing the funds for it. They could probably offset some of these concerns by following Commissioner Lindly’s recommendation that non-allocated funds be dedicated to centralized dispatch.”
She said next year, funding could be at half the present amount. “That would mean increasing funding now and taking it back next year,” she said.
Dix said she would note the possible decrease next fiscal year in any award letter she sends to Senior Companions.
The commissioners took no action on the recommendations.
