Drafter
Clerk 10/19/2012
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to the provision of transit tickets to human services agencies; amending Ordinance 12643, Section 19, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.210 and declaring an emergency.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. Agencies serving homeless and low-income populations have identified bus ticket needs for 2012 in excess of those authorized under K.C.C. 4A.700.210.
B. Some homeless shelter operators have determined that they have insufficient bus tickets to provide transportation for their clients for the remainder of 2012 and therefore have chosen to close facilities this fall with the goal of saving their limited number of bus tickets for use later in the year when weather is worse and shelter needs are higher.
C. The council desires to help those agencies serving homeless and low income populations through an increase in the available bus ticket subsidy levels for 2012.
D. The executive has identified a one-time source of funds to meet this 2012 objective.
E. To effectuate a distribution of bus tickets in 2012, the executive must initiate a proposal process with qualified health and human services agencies by November 1, 2012.
F. It will not be possible to meet that schedule and make tickets available this year unless this ordinance is enacted as an emergency ordinance, due to the time required under the county charter for nonemergency legislation to be considered, heard, adopted, enacted and to take effect.
G. Ordinance 17438 was adopted with a technical error missing the words "one hundred" in the statement of authority. This technical error has the unintended effect of causing the legislation to not achieve the adopted intent of the ordinance. Due to this technical error, a technical amendment needs to be adopted as an emergency to achieve the goals and intent of Ordinance 17438.
SECTION 2. Ordinance 12643, Section 19, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.210 are each hereby amended to read as follows:
The director is authorized to establish a program for the sale and distribution of tickets to human service agencies at twenty percent of their cash value for the purpose of meeting the transportation needs of low income and homeless populations. The total amount of the eighty percent discount provided under the program shall not exceed one million eight hundred seventy-five thousand dollars for any one year with the exception of 2012. For 2012, the total amount of the eighty percent discount provided under the program shall not exceed two million one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. However, the amount of the eighty percent discount may be increased by up to an additional two hundred thousand dollars annually under this human services ticket program for the value of tickets applied to it through the congestion reduction transit incentives program described in Ordinance 17295, section 1. The allocation of discount tickets under the program shall be made by the director in conjunction with local jurisdictions and the county's department or departments responsible for human services programs. The local jurisdictions and the county department or departments shall determine the number of tickets from their respective allocations that shall be sold to the human service agencies eligible under the program. Tickets sold under the program are valid on all public transportation and paratransit service.
SECTION 3. Section 2 of this ordinance expires January 1, 2013.
SECTION 4. For the reasons set forth in section 1 of this ordinance, the county council finds as a fact and declares that an emergency exists and that this ordinance is
necessary for the immediate preservation of public peace, health or safety or for the support of county government and its existing public institutions.