To: Board of Supervisors
From: County Administrative Office
Agenda Section: Consent
SUBJECT:
title
Approve a Budget Transfer from Contingency to Establish an Employee Bus Pass Program in Partnership with the Humboldt Transit Authority (4/5 Vote Required)
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Approve the Budget Transfer to be used to establish an Employee Bus Pass Benefit Program in the County Administrative Office (CAO) Budget Unit 1100-103 (4/5 vote required); and
2. Direct staff to develop and implement an Employee Bus Pass Benefit Program.
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SOURCE OF FUNDING:
General Fund Contingency Reserve (1100-990)
DISCUSSION:
In January 2022, the county kicked off a pilot employee bus pass program. The program, launched through the Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA), was a test program to gauge employee interest in utilizing the transit system for commuting to work and to increase overall ridership for the HTA. Initially, the County Administrative Office offered 50 passes on a first-come, first-served basis to employees. There was a greater than expected interest in the passes by employees and so an additional 46 passes were distributed (four of the passes received did not scan correctly). Employees were encouraged to use the bus passes for commuting to and from work and other errands, including personal trips.
The passes are plastic credit card-sized swipe-cards that can be used on local HTA bus routes. The cards allow the HTA to track by pass number, the date and time of the trip, the route number, bus number, driver, direction and fare box swiped.
Of the 96 bus passes distributed to employees, 49 of the passes were used for at least one trip from Jan. 25, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2022 (36 weeks). If an employee rode the bus twice a day during the 5-day work week through the full span of the pilot program, the employee would have logged 360 bus trips. Seven of the 49 employees logged more than 200 trips during t...
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