AVTA seeks higher county contribution
Lancaster, Palmdale pay more into JPA
LANCASTER — Antelope Valley Transit Authority’s Board of Directors discussed the possibility of adjusting the jurisdictional shares the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale and Los Angeles County pay under the Joint Powers Agreement to create a more equitable balance than the current setup, which sees Lancaster and Palmdale contribute more than LA County.
When the AVTA began in 1992 the JPA between the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale and LA County was developed to govern the organization of the newly formed transit agency. Each jurisdiction has two Board members whose votes carry equal weight. Therefore, each jurisdiction has an equal one-third say in the governance of the agency.
That is not the case for the jurisdictional shares paid by Lancaster, Palmdale and LA County.
“Dating back to the formation of the JPA, it’s based on
a formula that’s currently kind of unintelligible and results in a bias where Palmdale and Lancaster bear the majority of the burden and the county of LA has a smaller share,” AVTA Executive Director/CEO Macy Neshati said during a presentation at the Aug. 24 meeting.
The formula in the original bylaws attempts to allocate contributions based on the origin of passengers. Therefore more sparsely populated jurisdictions contribute less money even though it takes the same resources and more miles traveled, and therefore more energy and time, to properly serve those areas.
“The jurisdictional share based on number of people carried is not an equitable way to compute the true expense of serving that area,” Neshati said.
Neshati added no one at the agency — even a senior administrative staff person with about 14 years of service –knows where the formula came from.
LA County accounts for 39% of miles driven, vs. 31% for Lancaster and 30% for Palmdale.
In 2018, Lancaster contributed about $1.30 million compared to $1.18 million for Palmdale and $653,708 for LA County. That money goes directly into the agency’s general fund. It can be used to pay employees or hire more bus operators.
AVTA Chairman Marvin Crist said he has been working on this for more than two years. He is looking for the county to pay its fair share.
“What’s happening is the unions are coming to us and they’re saying, ‘We need to pay our drivers more money. We need to do this because our drivers are at $15 an hour,’” Crist said. “So when you look at it, do we want somebody that’s a minimum wage individual driving a $1.2 million bus?”
Crist asked that the item be placed on the agenda to stimulate the conversation. He noted the county pays the City of Santa Clarita Transit has about 200 service miles with the county.
“The county pays them $3.1 million for that; we get a little over $600,000 for that,” Crist said, adding the AVTA has 1,200 service miles for the county.
Crist proposed each jurisdiction pay 33 1/3% across the board.
“Let’s just make it look like we’re partners in this and the board, which is a make-up of all those jurisdictions, decide where those miles are needed,” Crist said.
Crist noted the agency recently purchased a transit center in Lake Los Angeles. They also created a new on-request microtransit service for the area.
“We’ve done numerous things to increase the service to the jurisdiction of the county, yet they don’t pay what they need to be paying,” Crist said.
Director Steve Hofbauer said he would like to see how other jurisdictions throughout the county calculate how much funding they get from the county.
“I think it’s valid that we discuss it,” Hofbauer said.
“The county is ready to have a discussion and is open to being able to mutually agree what is our fair share,” said Board Vice Chair Dianne Knippel, who represents LA County, adding the timing is right for a discussion.
Director Michelle Flanagan, who also represents the county, suggested the AVTA ask contractor Stantec Consulting Services, Inc,; which worked with the agency to enhance its services, to create a data table to help the county understand.
“We all know that we in the Antelope Valley do not get our fair share of funds coming up the hill,” Flanagan said, adding she would like to see the numbers to justify that the county pay its fair share.
Crist agreed but said they cannot keep moving the target. He said the only fair way to calculate it is to look at how many miles are traveled in the county’s jurisdiction.
“We keep improving service to the county without getting any more money. We keep improving it because that’s what we do as a board,” Crist said, adding he is looking for the county to pay its fair share.
Director Richard Loa agreed. “I know our supervisor is a champion for us but this needs to be communicated to the whole Board,” Loa said.