Selection Process:
Proposals will be reviewed by a Selection Committee comprised of City of Charlotte staff, representatives of the Historic North Davidson Neighborhood and Business Associations, a private sector developer with experience in residential development, and representation from the Belmont and Villa Heights communities.

The Selection Committee will review all proposals, and recommend a developer for Charlotte City Council approval. A short list of developers (three to four) will be selected for an interview with the Selection Committee as a part of the process.

Please direct any questions you may have to Zelleka Biermann at 704-336-3380.

CrimeinCharlotte website and Public Safety Pay
Staff Resources:
       Ruffin Hall, 704-336-3403 - rlhall@ci.charlotte.nc.us
       Tim Mayes, 704-336-5702 - tmayes@ci.charlotte.nc.us

Below is a table illustrating the Council's approved pay increase for employees in the Public Safety Pay Plan over the last 10 years. As a reminder, the Public Safety Pay Plan covers all Police classes below the rank of Police Captain (Police Officers and Sergeants) and all Fire Classes below the rank of Battalion Fire Chief (Firefighter, Engineer, and Fire Captain).

This data is in response to information posted on the CrimeinCharlotte website and to the emails you have received over the last week. One statement on the website indicates "Police Officers and Sergeants who have been on the force for over ten years have not received a raise in 9 years". As illustrated by the table below, those Public Safety Pay Plan employees at "top step" have received a market adjustment ranging from 2.5% to 5.0% (excluding FY1997) over the last 10 years.

* 3.0% across-the-board increase on July 1st for all employees

Proposal to Purchase City-Owned Land
Staff Resource:
       Curt Walton, 704-336-5019 - cwalton@ci.charlotte.nc.us

The City has received a proposal from Bobby Drakeford of The Drakeford Company to purchase City-owned land on Hamilton Street in the Greenville neighborhood. Mr. Drakeford's proposal is to purchase the land at the appraised value through private sale, and the intended use is single-family residential.

The City's Real Estate Division has been asked to lead the staff review of this proposal. Once a staff recommendation is complete, the City Manager will refer the issue to Council's Economic Development and Planning Committee for its discussion and review.

Keep Charlotte Beautiful to Clean Up the Biddleville Smallwood Neighborhood
Staff Resource:
       Wendy Gigante, 704-336-4211 - wgigante@ci.charlotte.nc.us

On Saturday, March 10, Keep Charlotte Beautiful will team up with volunteers and residents, along with employees of Solid Waste and Code Enforcement, for a neighborhood landscaping and clean up in the Biddleville-Smallwood neighborhood. Volunteers will meet at 8 a.m. at the Biddleville-Smallwood safe house, located at 202 Walford Drive, and then work until noon. The neighborhood will host a barbeque at lunchtime.

The event will have two components: landscaping at the community safe house and a neighborhood cleanup. Landscaping will involve erecting a split-rail fence at the back of the safe house to provide an aesthetic means of keeping cars from parking there, planting shrubs and flower beds around the property, and laying grass seed behind the building. For the cleanup, with the help of Solid Waste, residents will be able to dispose of bulky items, and volunteers will work throughout the neighborhood to pick up trash from the streets and empty lots.

Keep Charlotte Beautiful is one of the nation's oldest Keep America Beautiful affiliates. Founded in 1974, part of the Keep Charlotte Beautiful mission is to participate in programs that promote clean, safe, and beautiful communities, and to forge partnerships with government, communities, and organizations with similar goals and objectives. Among its annual projects are the Great American Cleanup, the Neighborhood Recognition program and the Adopt a City Street Program.

Metropolitan Transit Commission Meeting Summary
Staff Resource:
       Ron Tober, 704-336-7245 - rtober@ci.charlotte.nc.us

At its meeting on Wednesday, February 28, 2007, the MTC held a public hearing on the Proposed 2007 Fare Increase. The proposed increase is consistent with the MTC's adopted fare policy of modestly increasing the fare level every two years to ensure that fare revenues keep pace with inflation and reflect a fair-share contribution by riders to the costs of operating the transit system. The base fare increase is 10 cents, or the percentage increase in CPI, whichever is greater. Six citizens spoke at the hearing with three against the proposed fare increase stating the negative financial impact it will have on the elderly, homeless and disabled as the main reason for opposing the increase. The other three speakers expressed concern about late buses and Bus Operator conduct.

There were no action items, but the MTC did receive information briefings on the following:

FY08-09 Transit Operating Program: Staff made a follow-up presentation to the FY08-09 Transit Operating Program presentation that was given in January that focused on Operating and Capital, this time focusing on Revenue. A summary of the FY08 and FY09 Operating Program (Revenue) is as follows:

	FY 08 Proposed Budget	FY09 Proposed Budget
Operating Revenue	$126,429,304	$132,904,802
Operating Expense (Revenue)	$103,674,288	$110,665,566
Operating Balance (Revenue)	$22,755,016	$2,239,236

Also, the proposed FY08-09 Transit Operating Programs project sales tax at $73 million and $77 million in FY08 and FY09, respectively, the fare increase in starting is FY2008. Due to the fare increase, staff projects a 19 percent increase in FY08 Operating Revenue with a further 8 percent increase in FY09. Operating Revenue includes new fare revenue from implementation of the LYNX Blue Line service in FY2008.

Information on the capital portion of the FY08-09 Transit Program will be presented in March. In April, the MTC is scheduled to take action on the FY08-09 Transit Program and budget. Charlotte City Council consideration of the MTC's action would then occur in May.

Annual Route Performance Report: Staff presented the fifth Annual Route Performance Report, which evaluates service to improve performance of individual routes in the CATS' network. The Route Performance Monitoring System provides a statistical method to compare and analyze individual route performance over time against comparable services. A performance index score is computed for each bus route after averaging passengers per revenue hour and subsidy per passenger statistics against comparable services and system-wide averages. The scores are then indexed so that a score of 1.0 represents average performance within a given service category (scores above 1.0 are better than average and scores below 1.0 represent below average performance).

From this year's report, the top five performing routes are the 86 Gold Rush Red Line, 54X University Research Park Express, 9 Central Avenue, 11 North Tryon and 12 South Boulevard. The five lowest performing routes are the 236 Revolution Park, 89 South End Shuttle, 25 Clanton Park, 81X Wachovia Shuttle and UNCC CRI Shuttle. Staff will take the information from the report to make adjustments to better serve customers and to ensure that the long-term transit service plans can be achieved.

Procurement Policies Review: Staff presented the MTC with a review of CATS' Procurement Policies, previously adopted by the MTC in June 2002, to get feedback on proposed changes. There were very minor changes to the Polices, with the exception of FTA Circular 4220.1D, which has been updated by the FTA since the MTC's last review of the Policies and is now titled Circular 4220.1E. Under the Circular 4220.1E, as an FTA Grantee CATS procurement polices

most conform to the FTA's Third Party Contracting Requirements, which include free and open competition and showing no local preference in the solicitation, award and administration of any federally funded contracts.

Updating these the Procurement Polices will continue to provide the specific guidelines that CATS' staff will use in the procurement of specialized transit equipment and services with federal, state and local funds. The MTC will take action on this item at its March meeting.

CEO's Report: Under the CEO's report, it was reported that:

1. Ridership across all services increased 4.5 percent for the month of January 2007 compared to January 2006. Regular bus services increased 3.9 percent while Regional Express services, Community Circulators and Vanpool achieved double-digit increases.

2. Human Services Transportation and Gold Rush services experienced single-digit increases for the month. Average daily ridership rose above 67,000 riders and the only services experiencing a decrease in ridership for the month were the Mooresville Express and Beatties Ford Neighborhood Shuttles. CATS FY2007 ridership is up 2 percent year-to-date compared to the same time last year.

3. Contract negotiations between BOD private management and the Teamsters local are continuing and an agreement has not been approved by the Bus Operator's local. The contract expired on January 31st, but an extension has been agreed to until a new agreement is reached or an impasse occurs. CATS and the City of Charlotte are not part of the negotiations.

4. Construction of the LYNX Blue line is progressing and is still on track for a November 26 opening. Mr. Tober said a portion of the line may open early, but the Revenue Operations Date contained in the FFGA with the FTA will remain the same. He also noted that staff is reasonably confident at this time that the Project will come in under the $462.7 million budget.

The next MTC meeting will be held March 28 at 5:30 pm.