Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee
Approved Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tucson, AZ
Submitted by
Secretary Richard E Corbett
Members and guests present introduced themselves. Guest staff from Pima County and the City of Tucson present to discuss the open meeting law was introduced.
The minutes of the September meeting were approved with John Fleming’s affiliation corrected (City Ward 3, not Pima County), and the addition of Bill Adamson’s comments, which had been read into the record by Merritt Howard, on a motion by Steve Bresler, seconded by John Fleming, and passed unanimously.
Tucson Police Lt Mike had an emergency and was unable to
attend.
Deputy Smith was there as a substitute for Sgt Karl
Woolridge, and reported there were six bicycle-motor vehicle collisions, all
with injury. The most serious was on the Mt Lemmon Hwy, where a cyclist was hit
by a suicidal driver, who fled the scene, but was later apprehended. This plus
two others required transportation of the cyclists. The other three did not
require transportation.
Member Hank Rowe asked about a crash in Catalina, and member
Eric Post added two more, a left hook on Campbell, and a 16 year old hit in a
crosswalk while ‘straddling’ their bike. County Staff Matt Zoll mentioned a
crash where two cyclists were riding single file, and a passing trailer hit
one.
4: Call
to the Public
Citizen
Danielle Diamante asked about the Aviation Hwy extension plans, and was told
that according to City Staff Melissa Antol, the City will provide a Downtown
Links report at the November meeting.
5: Open
Meeting Law
Robin Brigode of the Pima County Clerk’s Office stated that she thought the best approach was to ask for questions.
Chair Tolton asked about sub-committees – what are the requirements?
Brigode answered that sub-committees must meet the same legal requirements as the full Committee, except for keeping minutes; and further:
Member Bill Adamson asked if non-BAC members could participate on sub-committees.
Brigode answered that sub-committees could have non-members present, and that they can participate in discussion, but they cannot count toward the quorum, and cannot vote.
Adamson then asked if a quorum is not present, could discussion take place.
Brigode answered that no discussion of issues is supposed to take place without a quorum, and an agenda. She went on to suggest that working groups be used to accomplish some of the similar efforts.
Roger Randolph (City Staff) stated that the requirements of the open meeting law are actually relatively simple and easy to comply with. He went on to point out that ‘polling’ by e-mail, where one member sends to another, and that one sends to another, and so on, can be a violation when a majority of members are contacted this way. The Arizona Attorney General has a special team, called Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team (OMLET). Brigode then gave some examples of violations.
Brigode pointed out that E-mail could be used to discuss when a meeting will take place, and to ask for agenda items. The actual agenda materials should be sent to the Staff Coordinators (in our case, Melissa Antol at present).
Adamson then asked if citizen committees could do the same job as sub-committees? Chair Tolton asked if the Committee could authorize citizen committees. Robin answered yes to both questions. The question was then asked as to whether non-BAC Members could be on sub-committees. Robin answered yes, so long as they did not vote.
Brigode then offered a few suggestions: 1) include a standard disability accommodation statement on the agendas; 2) The by-laws should match the membership (they do not at present); and 3) erring on the side of caution when several members will be attending the same function, i.e. a Christmas party, by posting a notice (but no agenda).
Is it possible to post a newsletter on-line? Brigode answered that so long as there is an open invitation for contributions monthly.
Can the Chair appoint a non-member to a sub-committee at a regular meeting? Brigode answered probably not, but admitted this was not clear.
The County and City staff asked for any further questions, there were none; then they excused themselves.
Secretary
Richard Corbett reminded all that the attendance list was circulating, and to
please sign and pass it on, ultimately returning it to him.
Chair Tolton
stated that the Executive Committee would be addressing any revised policies or
practices for eth BAC resulting from open meeting law requirements. She went on to say that each BAC
sub-committee should have a staff member.
6: BAC
list of recommendations for RTA
PAG Staff
member Richard Corbett explained the process that had started in June with the
PAG sponsored retreat, to get cyclist input as to priorities for the RTA bike
projects list. He put up and explained a large bike map showing the bike projects
that matched the corrected RTA master bike projects list that he handed out
(replacing the one in the agenda packet). He then passed the presentation off
to Bill Adamson, BAC Facilities Sub-committee Chair.
Adamson
thanked Corbett for all the work staff has put into the process, and pointed
out to the Committee that the RTA is moving ahead with or without BAC input, so
timely BAC action is needed. He urged
BAC members to ‘push’ their jurisdictions to advance bike projects, as only one
has been authorized so far – Kolb Road, Valencia to I-10. He handed out a list showing the recommended
priorities from the Facilities sub-committee, and explained some of the changes
from the compiled results of the retreat process. Discussion followed as to
specific projects and some of the changes.
Beck asked
why East Speedway was so low on the list, compared to more peripheral; routes?
Adamson explained that there is lots of recreational riding on the peripheral
routes that were moved up.
Adamson
moved to accept the recommended sub-committee list as the BAC’s recommendation,
Merritt Howard seconded, and the motion was passed unanimously.
7: BAC
Sub-Committee & Staff Reports (8)
Secretary
Corbett gave a report for City staff Melissa Antol, who could not be at the
meeting due to a conflict: 1) Downtown Links report will be given in November,
2) two projects on 22nd Street are not far enough along to report on
yet – Kino-22nd overpass, and 22nd Street overpass; 3)
The TDOT Bike Planner Position has 20 applications, and TDOT hopes to make a
decision within a month. This position will report to Melissa, who will stay
involved with BAC and the RTA processes, as well as working on some events
including bike-to-work day. In the future she will wean herself from events
involvement as the new planner becomes comfortable. TDOT remains committed to
the bike program, and this change should be looked at as an opportunity to make
the program stronger; and 4) She is working with the Brain Injury Institute to
plan one of their local education events and is looking for volunteers (Corbett
handed out a flier on this).
Zoll
reported that the County would interview soon for their bicycle engineer
position.
Member Wayne
Cullop gave a reminder about the November 11th GABA Bike Swap meet.
Secretary
Corbett handed out Grant Road Corridor project information sheets provided by
Antol.
A brief
discussion took place regarding the timing of and the relationship between the
minutes and the GABA articles that Secretary Corbett writes. He will send
copies of the GABA article, if it is produced first, to the Chair and the
sub-committee chairs.
9:
Potential Items for Future Agendas
The time was
up, so members were encouraged to suggest agenda items to the Chair by E-mail.
10:
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:06 pm
Bill Adamson, Pima County
Brian Beck, Tucson Ward 2
Dave Boston, Tucson Ward 6
Steve Bressler, Tucson Ward 1
P. Wayne Cullop, Tucson Ward 4
John Fleming, Pima County
Charles Franz, U of A
Merritt Howard, Pima County
Martha Lemen, Pima County
Zach MacDonald, Tucson Ward 5
Eric Post, Pima County
Hank Rowe, Pima County
John Thaxton, DMAFB
Diana Tolton, Pima County
Richard Corbett, Pima Assoc of Gov’ts
Dep. Smith, PC Sheriff’s Dept.
Matt Zoll, Pima County
Robin Brigode, County Clerk’s Office
Roger Randolph, City Clerk’s Office
Roy Schoonover, citizen
Jim Jordan, citizen,
Tony Crosby, citizen
Norm Land, citizen
John Moritz, citizen