Drafter
Clerk 10/12/2017
Title
AN ORDINANCE related to the provision of discounted transit tickets to human service agencies; amending Ordinance 12643, Section 19, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.210 and declaring an emergency.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. K.C.C 4A.700.210 authorizes a program for the sale and distribution of transit tickets to human service agencies at ten percent of face value for the purpose of meeting the transportation needs of low income and homeless populations.
2. The King County council increased the dollar amount of the total annual subsidy amount of the program in 2014 in recognition that the 2015 fare increase would otherwise have reduced the number of tickets available to human service agencies.
3. In 2016, the King County council reduced the cost to human service agencies purchasing tickets through this program from twenty percent of face value to ten percent of face value, in order to increase the number of tickets agencies could purchase to serve the needs of their clients. The effect of this reduction in cost to the agencies is that agencies have greater financial flexibility, including possibly increasing the number of tickets that some agencies could purchase.
4. While agencies have the ability to purchase more tickets, the code imposed dollar limit of such subsidy will not allow Metro to sell to the agencies in excess of the subsidy limit set forth in K.C.C. 4A.700.210.
5. King County declared a homelessness emergency in November 2015 in response to the growing number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The homelessness crisis in King County continues to persist, increasing the public transportation needs for low and no income individuals lacking permanent shelter.
6. A survey of human service agencies conducted by Metro in 2017 found that despite recent increases in the number of tickets available for purchase through the human services ticket program, the demand for tickets among agency's clients continues to exceed the current size of the program.
7. In September 2017, the King County department of community and human services initiated a process to reallocate the remaining available program subsidy. During that process, the department learned from some of the agencies that in order for the program to continue through the end of the year, additional capacity for ticket purchases is needed. The department has calculated the necessary increase to the subsidy to be approximately $60,000.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings: Adoption of this ordinance as an emergency is necessary in order to enable the county to continue the human services ticket program through the end of the year at the current demand level.
SECTION 2. Section 3 of this ordinance expires January 1, 2018.
SECTION 3. Ordinance 12643, Section 19, as amended, and K.C.C. 4.A.700.210 are each hereby amended to read as follows:
A. The director is authorized to establish a program for the sale and distribution of tickets to human service agencies at ten percent of their cash value for the purpose of meeting the transportation needs of low income and homeless populations. The total amount of the ninety percent discount provided under the program shall not exceed three million six hundred sixty thousand dollars for any one year. However, the amount of the ninety 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 for the purpose of meeting the transportation needs of low income and homeless populations. The program shall provide for the following:
1. Metro-issued fare payment media, including but not limited to bus tickets, to be sold to human service agencies at ten percent of the cash value; and
2. A fare payment medium consisting of a combination of a Metro-issued fare payment medium and a fare payment medium of another transportation agency, to be sold to human services agencies at the higher of either the ten percent of the cash value of the Metro fare medium or the discounted price of the fare medium provided by the other transportation agency under an interagency agreement between Metro and the other transportation agency.
B. The allocation of discount fare payment media 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 quantity of fare payment media from their respective allocations that shall be sold to the human service agencies eligible under the program.
C. The total amount of discount provided under the program established under subsection A. of this section shall not exceed three million six hundred sixty thousand dollars for any one year.
D. Metro fare payment media sold under the program shall be valid for all Metro transportation and paratransit service as well as for service on those Sound Transit bus routes agreed to by Metro and Sound Transit.
SECTION 4. The county council finds as a fact 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.