Minutes
Employee Assembly
May 21, 1997
Uris G-08
12:15–1:30 p.m.
Present: M. Hartill, J. DeMarco, L. Clougherty, D. Marsh, T. Calvert, D. Geohring, J. Tuttle, M. Purvis, C. Hayes, G. Brandt, D. Poland, C. Gardner
Guest Speakers: William Wendt, Director, Transportation & Mail Services
Carl Cohen, Asst. Director, Parking & Commuter Services
Hal Craft, Vice President, Facilities & Campus Services
The meeting was moved to an auditorium to accommodate the audience (estimated at over 100).
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Meg Hardie, Chair of the EA, at 12:20 p.m.
M. Hardie announced the rules of recognition to speak. To accommodate the large number of employees wishing to speak, each speaker would have approximately 1 minute to make a comment or ask a question and the respondent would have 3 minutes to answer.
The speakers and EA members were introduced.
W. Wendt handed out materials showing the increases and providing explanations for them and spoke about the options employees would have.
W. Wendt stated that over the past 6 years, the Transportation Department has been working under the Transportation Demand Management Plan which provides free parking and transportation options for all employees. The Plan also tried to prevent the University from becoming consumed by parking spaces. During Years 6 and 7 of the current program, all aspects were reviewed, with concerned input, and restructuring was suggested.
He also stated there are only 11,508 parking spaces for all student, faculty, staff and visitors on campus: for 736 - prices will decrease; for about 9500 - prices remain the same; for about 1200 - prices increase - and this would mostly affect the student dorms.
For the new long-range plan, concerns addressed by the Transportation Department were:
- A five-year commitment to rates should be implemented because they didn’t want to make changes each year.
- Issues for consideration: equity; proximity to central campus; get people out of single occupancy mode; underutilized parking spaces; and market forces.
- Build into budget funding for maintenance.
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W. Wendt explained the process to get to the new rates/tier system:
- TAC of the UA studied the issues last and this year.
- It was decided that rates and tiers needed to be changed.
- The new plan was presented to the UA at 4/97 meeting and it was passed at the 5/97 meeting.
- New plan also asked the administration for additional support.
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Revenue and expenses were discussed. Some explanations:
- Debt service is result of not being able to afford to pay cash for projects so had to mortgage them.
- Pavement R&D unfunded for 6 years.
- In General Expenses - capital equipment, insurance advertising, supplies, etc.
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C. Cohen was introduced and explained the new fee chart and map. He spoke about equity issues, and supply and demand. He stated they looked at spaces and found over 1200 unused spaces, and other spaces within the tiers were overused. He commented that the Transportation Department looked carefully at cheaper ways to park that would be equitable for all employees before deciding to change the tier system.
- Dave Poland, Chair of the EA ad hoc Committee on Transportation, spoke about salaries, and cost of parking not being equitable for employees in comparison with other universities. He handed out information on figures he had received from Penn State, Purdue, Dartmouth and Syracuse. He also said it is hard to compete with students driving Land Rovers. W Wendt responded that these universities’ budgets are completely different and their parking regulations for faculty and staff are also different in comparison. None of the other universities provided free transit.
Comments & Questions and Answer Session
- Is the decision final? Yes - administration (Craft, Wendt, Rogers) approved it. Do the trustees have to approve it? No.
- Comment: From Gannett employee - taking away 83 spots in SA. What are options? Answer - Parking in A Lot, with Blue Light taking employees there. Discussion on how often this bus runs late at night. Students take A Lot parking spaces.
- Comment: From Hughes employee - Upper Hughes filled by 8:30 each morning. Only 15 spots taken in Upper P Lot.
- Comment: Equity? What are we paying for? Debt shouldn’t fall on employees.
- Petition with 99 signatures from Law School employees presented and comments made by Law Library employee.
- Comment: A faculty member wanted to bring concern for new fees up at Faculty Senate meeting but was not allowed to do so at the past meeting (not on agenda).
- Not all employees received the mailing - who got notice of changes? Human Resources has list used by Transportation Department for mailing. Will be sending out individual letters to all permit holders.
- Comment: Numbers used for fee comparison chart are inaccurate and insulting. Answer - Transportation Department used Communication Strategies Department to write the flyer.
- Was a sliding fee scale discussed? Yes, it was discussed but the free transit/parking options address that issue.
- Comment: From faculty member - Varna parking rates are free (for comparison of nearby areas); the rates are a disincentive to work; equity? - is the Transportation Department immune to the belt tightening that affects everyone else? Are permit payers paying for free riders?
- Comment: Does this reduce single occupancy cars?
- Comment: “Thanks for coming.” Discussion of permits. Faculty and staff get first offering and if there are any leftover spaces, they are offered to students.
- Are students buying permits for central campus? No, except for disability cases, unless space is available.
Tier 6 - no students at all
Garage - offered to students if available
Crescent - grad students first, the undergrads
Residential Parking - available only to students
Student Commuters - Lots O & K
- Comment: South and West campus areas have no free parking; employees often required to find parking on city streets; students should not be allowed to park on campus; the fee structure adversely affects working mothers. Answer - W. Wendt said they try to make special arrangements for these employees and these concerns should be brought to the COTS groups. The Transportation Department is working with Town and City of Ithaca concerning street parking possibilities.
- Many employees especially from the state side complained that they haven’t received raises in over 3–4 years and this would cause a big hardship. W. Wendt said he was sorry but he has no control over the raises or the state units.
- Comment: Many of the employees in the work place are women concerned not only for their family’s needs, but their safety.
M. Hardie called for a show of hands to show support for the EA-requested moratorium on the increase in rates until August 15. This received an overwhelming positive response.
Despite not agreeing to the full moratorium on the rates, H. Craft and F. Rogers agreed to meet with a sub-committee of the EA to discuss the increase and possible solutions. This would happen no later than the end of June or early July. Rogers said that 10,000 permits cannot be put on hold.
M. Hardie called on employees to voice their concerns and, for the majority, most concerns seemed to focus around the P Lot and SA Lots (tiers 3, 5 and 6).
C. Cohen stated that P permit holders who pay the highest rate complained that for one level down, the SA permit holders were paying less. It was these complaints. which he stated were many, the transportation did their study.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned shortly after 1:30 p.m. by M. Hardie, Chair, with the hope that, as stated earlier, the EA will have time to go over the concerns with H. Craft, W. Wendt and F. Rogers and try to come to some reasonable equity for all.
Respectfully submitted,
Dianne L. Geohring
Secretary of EA 96–97
assisted by Linda Clougherty