Return to Committee on Strategic Planning and Service Delivery; Committee on Finance, Audit and Budget; Board of Commissioners
Live reporting by Erin Rusmi
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Electric bus report, Ventra App redesign and a right of entry agreement with the Rebuild Foundation

Erin Rusmi

Hi, I’ll be live-tweeting three back-to-back Chicago Transit Authority meetings today for #CHIdocumenters @CHIdocumenters The three meetings are the Committee on Strategic Planning and Service Delivery, Committee on Finance, Audit, and Budget, and Regular Meeting of @cta Board.

09:30 AM Mar 9, 2022 CST

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 2/14

The CTA Board has 7 members: 4 appointed by the mayor of Chicago - Chairman Lester L. Barclay, Alejandro Silva, Kevin Irvine and Rev. Johnny L. Miller - and 3 appointed by the Governor of Illinois - Rev. Dr. L. Bernard Jakes, Rosa Y. Ortiz, and one vacancy.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 3/14

If I include any images in my tweets, I’ll go back to them after the meeting and add image descriptions as comments. I don’t think I can write a good image description and keep up with the meeting at the same time. I apologize in advance for that delay.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 4/14

FYI if you’re not familiar with image descriptions, they make your content more accessible for blind & low visions folks. I highly encourage you to use them if you don’t already. To add IDs click “alt” on a photo you just uploaded. It doesn’t add to your tweet’s character count.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 5/14

For full agendas, go to https://www.transitchicago.com/board/notices-agendas-minutes/. I’ll attempt to summarize the key points more briefly and with less jargon. Strategic Planning agenda: electric bus report presentation & Ventra app presentation.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 6/14

Finance agenda 1: the first item after “financial report” and procedural items was a real “What in the world did I just read?” moment for me. I think it means allowing CTA to pay debts from the Sales Tax Receipt Revenue Bonds, or charge debts to them?

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 7/14

Finance agenda 2: Fiscal Years 2022-2026 Capital Improvement Program, ground lease of CTA property at Chicago & Franklin Brown Line Station (tenant can develop the property, landlord retains ownership)

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 8/14

Finance agenda 3: Right of Entry Agreement with Rebuild Foundation at 95th & Dan Ryan Red Line station (allows a developer to access part of the property to store construction materials or other items needed for work they’re doing on or near the property)

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 9/14

Finance agenda 4: review of proposed purchases: antifreeze recycling services, 100 diesel engine transit buses, 45 electric buses and 13 charging stations; inspection, maintenance, and repair of clean agent fire prevention system…

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 10/14

Finance agenda 5: semi-annual and monthly preventative OSHA inspections on CTA facility cranes, repair of electric motors, pigeon deterring devices, plumbing supplies, painting services; pickup, processing, and deposit of CTA’s bulk currency, and unarmed security guard services.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 11/14

Regular Board agenda 1: executive session review of Section 28 hearing recommendation on Jonathan Tam (this means Tam was fired or demoted, filed a complaint about it, and now they’re deciding whether to uphold that decision or restore Tam to (pronoun?)’s previous position.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 12/14

Regular Board agenda 2: committee reports, construction reports, new business.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 13/14

The meeting started on time! They’re presenting on plans to switch to all electric buses over a period of severeal years. They’re starting on the South and West sides of the city because of air quality impacts.

Erin Rusmi @ErinRusmi 14/14

Analysis included examining the area around both garage and the routes for “low income and minority” and air quality impact.