[nfbwatlk] FW: Sound Transit CEO Report

Tue Dec 15 08:57:18 UTC 2009

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From: Sound Transit [mailto:soundtransit at govdelivery.com] 
Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 3:42 PM
To: lawnmower84 at hotmail.com
Subject: Sound Transit CEO Report

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CEO Report 

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>From Joni Earl 

Dec. 11, 2009 

In this edition 

*	
Saying goodbye to Board Chair Nickels 

*	
Outgoing Boardmembers 

*	
2010 Budget adopted 

*	
The Board’s new leadership 

*	
105 million passengers carried 

*	
Rail grinding update 

*	
Photo of the Week 

*	
Sound Transit Board action from Thursday 

Saying goodbye to Board Chair Nickels 

Thursday, at its final Board meeting in 2009, the Sound Transit Board and staff said goodbye to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, our last original Boardmember. 

To say his strong, steady leadership will be missed is an understatement, not just here but nationwide. As was presented at the Board meeting Thursday, the American Public Transportation Association and its members have honored Mr. Nickels with the prestigious 2009 Outstanding Public Transportation Board Member award. The award is one of APTA’s top honors. 

A quick review of his achievements show the length and depth of Mr. Nickel’s outstanding service to Sound Transit. In 1996, following the first successful public vote, there was a staff here of less than 25 employees. There were no buses, no trains, and the agency didn’t have funding or even a name except for Regional Transit Authority. During Mr. Nickels time on the Board: 

*	ST Express buses began rolling for the first time in 1999. 

*	Sounder commuter trains began from Tacoma to Seattle in September, 2000. 

*	Tacoma Link light rail trains started in 2003. 

*	Voters approved Sound Transit 2 improvements for the region. 

*	Numerous transit projects, including new HOV access lanes, transit centers and park-and-ride lots, opened throughout the region. 

*	New Starts funding was secured and construction began on University Link. 

And, of course, on July 18 2009 after two decades of hard work, Mayor Nickels led the agency in the celebration for the start of Central Link light rail passenger service. 

On Saturday, Dec. 19, Mr. Nickels will lead the ceremony opening passenger service on our new Link light rail connection to Sea-Tac Airport. 

In the field of public service there’s no greater honor than being known as someone who made a difference. Mr. Nickels has made a huge difference. 

Outgoing Boardmembers 

Besides Board Chair Nickels, the Sound Transit Board also said goodbye Thursday to three other outstanding members who recently left the Board. 

*	Mary-Alyce Burleigh, councilmember from the City of Kirkland, joined the Board in 2006. She served on the Board’s Finance Committee and was a strong voice for East King County projects, as well as Sound Transit 2. 

*	Julie Anderson joined the Board in 2005 as a councilmember from the City of Tacoma. She was on the Board’s Finance Committee and was a leader on the D-M Street project in Tacoma and with the successful passage of Sound Transit 2. She recently became Pierce County Auditor. 

*	Kurt Triplett joined the Board in June when he became King County Executive after Ron Sims left for Washington D.C. Although he had a brief tenure, Mr. Triplett had a great impact, having served as Deputy Executive to Mr. Sims. 

2010 Budget adopted 

The Sound Transit Board on Thursday adopted the agency’s 2010 budget. The budget includes $945.9 million in operating expenditures and capital outlays for next year and includes capital outlays of $131.9 million for Sounder, $376.8 million for Link light rail and $50.6 million for Regional Express projects. 

Also of note, next year we will provide a combined total of about 750,000 hours of service on our trains and buses, a 17 percent increase over this year. 

For the first time, the budget was split into two volumes to make it more transparent and easier to read. One volume includes the annual staff, operating and capital budgets for 2010; the other is a new multi-year Capital Improvement Program that provides project details and outlines the lifetime capital budgets. 

We’re looking forward to a very big year. 

The Board’s new leadership 

The Sound Transit Board on Thursday unanimously elected its new chair and vice chairs for the next two years. 

Starting in January, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon will be the new Board Chair. He will be joined by Lakewood Councilmember Claudia Thomas and Issaquah Deputy President Fred Butler as vice chairs. 

This is Boardmember Thomas’ second term as vice-chair. 

105 million passengers carried 

We’re very proud to announce that we recently passed the 105 million mark for passengers. That’s the total carried on our Sound Transit trains and buses since service began with ST Express in September 1999. 

Great thanks to our passengers who climb aboard our trains and buses every day. 

Rail grinding continues 

I wanted to give you a quick update on the Link rail grinding work that started Monday evening at the East Portal of the Beacon Hill Tunnel and worked south. 

So far, the work has gone very well and the grinding machine has been quieter than expected. The machine smooths the tracks and helps reduce noise levels from passing trains. The grinder goes back and forth over a piece of track (about two to three blocks long) to get it the right profile and smoothness before moving on to the next segment. 

Grinding is just one step in our program to reduce Link train noise. The program also includes installing track lubricators at some curves and building more noise walls along the tracks in areas where grinding and lubricating are not enough to bring noise levels down to acceptable limits. 

In following weeks, the grinding will occur on the new Airport segment, Tukwila, and SODO. Work hours are from about 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. each night, six nights a week. Trains operate at a reduced frequency after 7 p.m. on work nights, operating at 20-minute intervals instead of the normal 10 and 15-minute schedule. The grinding will not be performed on Sundays and December 24 to December 27. 

Photo of the Week 

Our photo this week shows the Link rail grinder at work. http://www.soundtransit.org/newsroom/photo/ <http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTY2MTAzMiZtZXNzYWdlaWQ9UFJELUJVTC02NjEwMzImZGF0YWJhc2VpZD0xMDAxJnNlcmlhbD0xMjE1NjI4NDA3JmVtYWlsaWQ9bGF3bm1vd2VyODRAaG90bWFpbC5jb20mdXNlcmlkPWxhd25tb3dlcjg0QGhvdG1haWwuY29tJmV4dHJhPSYmJg==&&&100&&&http://www.soundtransit.org/newsroom/photo/> . 

The Sound Transit Board on Thursday: 

*	Amended the Adopted 2009 Budget for Central Link from $31,611,739 to $50,611,739. 

*	 Adopted the 2010 Service Implementation Plan, authorizing the chief executive officer to implement service changes in September 2010 and February 2011, and approved the use of preliminary 2011-2015 service changes for planning and forecasting purposes. 

*	  Approved an agreement with King County to provide ST Express bus operations and maintenance services for the period of January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2012, with two additional one-year options to extend. 

*	 Approved an agreement with Pierce Transit to provide ST Express bus operations and maintenance services for the period of January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2012, with two one-year options to extend. 

*	  Approved an amendment to the existing ST Express bus operations and maintenance service agreement with Community Transit by extending the term of the agreement through March 31, 2010. 

*	 Adopted a Scope Control Policy and superseding Motion No. M2002-121. 

*	Approved a ten-year lease with two additional one to five-year options to renew with Union Street Improvement Company, L.L.C. for office space located at 315 5th Avenue S. in Seattle, WA, in an amount not to exceed $13,277,315 for the ten-year term. 

*	 Approved a ten-year lease with two additional three or five-year options to renew with Seattle Union Station, L.L.C. for office space located at 625 5th Avenue S. in Seattle, WA, in an amount not to exceed $18,497,643 for the ten-year term. 

*	Confirmed the chief executive officer’s authority to negotiate transaction documents for Sound Transit’s acquisition of property interests in the Southern Portion of the BNSF Woodinville Subdivision and the Redmond Spur, generally consistent with the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Acquisition of the Woodinville Subdivision among Sound Transit, the Port of Seattle, King County, the City of Redmond, Puget Sound Energy and the Cascade Water Alliance, for a purchase price not to exceed $14,000,000, and consistent with the general premises upon which the maximum purchase price was developed. 

*	Authorized the Board Chair to execute a fifth amendment to the employment agreement with Joan M. Earl, Sound Transit chief executive officer. 

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