To: Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): County Administrator
Staff Name and Phone Number: Katherine DiPasqua 565-3779
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Clean Commute Employee Benefit Program Updates
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Delegate authority to the Director of Public Infrastructure to execute proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Sonoma and City of Santa Rosa, in form approved by County Counsel, for a pilot program allowing each entities’ employees to ride free on Sonoma County Transit and Santa Rosa CityBus for a term to expire on December 31, 2024, with two one-year options to renew through December 2026; and
B) Adopt a Resolution delegating authority to the Director of Public Infrastructure to waive and grant exemptions to the County Electric Vehicle Charging Station rates, including to allow free charging for employees pursuant to and consistent with the County’s Employee Benefit and Clean Commute Programs; and
C) Authorize the increase of the Clean Commute Monthly Incentive from $40 per month to $100 per month for one year, through December 2024.
end
Executive Summary:
In 2019, the County launched a Clean Commute program that included pre-tax commuter benefits and discounted Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) passes. In addition, the County also provides free bus rides on Sonoma County Transit and free monthly passes on Santa Rosa CityBus for all County employees. In May 2022, using funding awarded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to reduce the drive-alone rates for large employers in the Bay Area, the County launched its Online Trip Tracker. The Online Trip Tracker allows employees to log their telework and alternate commute days, sign up for pre-tax commuter benefits, and find a carpool. For every telework day or alternate commute trip logged, the system automatically calculates the amount of money saved, calories burned, and CO2 emissions reduced. Since its inception, 1,652 County employees have logged 163,426 trips into the Online Trip Tracker and saved 833 metric tons of CO2.
To further promote the use of alternative forms of transportation, the Board of Supervisors allocated $150,000 of Strategic Plan Round 1 funding to create a new Clean Commute Incentive Program. The program was launched in January 2023, and provides a $40 per month subsidy to permanent employees who ride the train, bus, carpool, bike or walk to work a certain number of days in a six-month period.
Considering the Board of Supervisors’ discussion during the Climate Workshop on August 29, 2023, and with the desire to implement improvements to the Clean Commute program that will reduce staff work, simplify the process for employees, and incentivize the use of alternative forms of transportation to reduce the County’s carbon emissions, County Administrator staff, as the Clean Commute Program lead, are recommending the following changes:
1. Establish a no-cost, reciprocal bus pass pilot program with City of Santa Rosa where City and County employees can ride free on both Sonoma County Transit and Santa Rosa CityBus by showing their ID badge.
2. Allow free electric vehicle (EV) charging for County employees for up to 3 hours per day at County-owned charging stations.
3. Allow free bike parking at bike lockers located on County campus.
4. Increase the Clean Commute Monthly Incentive from $40 to $100 per month per employee using the roughly $135,000 in available program funding.
Discussion:
Sonoma County Transit and Santa Rosa CityBus MOU
Currently, all Sonoma County employees have access to free monthly passes on Santa Rosa CityBus. To obtain these passes, employees must sign up through the Human Resources Department. Human Resources staff then coordinates with Sonoma County Transit (SCT) to issue Clipper Cards with monthly passes loaded onto them, and staff use a CalCard to pay for them. Only a handful of County employees utilize this benefit, and because of the way the passes are purchased, the County has no way of tracking ridership.
By comparison, County employees can ride for free on Sonoma County Transit just by showing their County-issued ID badge, and SCT can track employee ridership and provide reports on commute trends. Similarly, City of Santa Rosa employees can ride for free on CityBus by showing their City-issued ID badge. Unlike the County, however, the City does not have a program allowing their employees to ride free on SCT yet.
The proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is for a no cost, reciprocal pilot program for City of Santa Rosa employees to be able to ride free on Sonoma County Transit (SCT) and for Sonoma County employees to ride free on CityBus. Beginning January 1, 2024, City and County employees in possession of a valid City or County-issued ID badge would have unlimited number of rides, to all destinations that SCT and CityBus serve. Both parties will track ridership and provide periodic reports to the partner agency to keep them informed of the program’s usage.
Staff from SCT will participate in periodic meetings with the City of Santa Rosa to review ridership data, stay informed on any new transit developments, share other statistics that provide a better understanding of the impacts of the pilot program, and strategize on marketing and outreach. The MOU is planned to expire on December 31, 2024, and includes two one-year options to renew through December 2026.
Staff do not expect any additional costs will be incurred by SCT related to this program. The amount of uncollected fares is expected to be less than $5,000 per year. The County and City will analyze employee usage at the end of the initial MOU term to determine if any amendments are necessary.
Free Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging for County Employees
Based on energy usage data measured in kilowatts (kW) from County owned charging stations, Electric Vehicle (EV) usage in Sonoma County has increased by 409% since 2018. To help meet demand and support the Board’s Strategic Plan goal of maximizing sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reductions, Public Infrastructure Fleet Division have been working to update the County’s EV charging infrastructure. The current baseline fees for usage are $2.00 to connect, and $1.00 per hour of charging station connection. There are additional fees of $10.00 per hour for each hour of connection beyond four hours.
There are currently 46 charging station ports in the County’s non-fleet network located in parking areas utilized by both County employees and public visitors (see Attachment 3 for locations). It should be noted that Sonoma Water owns and maintains additional charging ports at their 404 Aviation, 204 Concourse, and fleet yard locations. These sites are not included in this program because Sonoma Water employees already can charge their vehicles for free, as needed for commute purposes, when not in use by fleet vehicles.
Today’s item requests authorization to provide the Director of Public infrastructure the authority and flexibility to establish a new pilot program that would waive the current EV charging rates for all County employees for up to three hours per day. After three hours, all connection fees, hourly rates and violation fees will still apply. The three-hour time limit should be adequate for a vehicle to get a full charge, while also freeing up the charging station so that other County staff or public visitors will be able to use it. Rates for public and all other usage of County EV charging stations will remain unchanged.
The pilot period is planned to begin on November 1, 2023, and last one year. It is anticipated that this program will result in approximately $500 per month of forgone EV charging revenue, for a total of $6,000 during the pilot period. This revenue is expected to be offset by the $32,000 per year of ongoing Strategic Plan funding that Fleet receives to support EV charging station subscription costs and maintenance. However, staff will be tracking usage and maintenance costs during the year and will coordinate with the County Administrator’s Office should any changes be needed to the program after the pilot period ends.
Free Bike Parking on County Campus
There are a total of 28 bike storage lockers on the County Campus: 8 near the Hall of Justice, 8 near La Plaza, and 12 near Permit Sonoma. The current rental rate is $0.05 per hour and the lockers require a BikeLink payment card to operate. The usage rates for the lockers are very low, likely due to the payment method.
To help simplify the process and to remove any possible barriers for employees to use them, staff have negotiated a new three-year agreement with eLock Technologies, LLC for the management and operation of the lockers. The new agreement will include an upgrade to the lockers that will allow access via a mobile app instead of a payment card. Once a County employee downloads the mobile app, they will be able to park in any of the bike lockers on campus for free for up to 12hours per day. eLock Technologies, LLC will provide the County usage reports and invoices on an annual basis for the bike storage costs. Given the low hourly rates, staff do not expect the annual costs to exceed $1,000 per year. The bike lockers will be available for free usage beginning November 1, 2023.
Increase Monthly Incentive to $100
In 2022, the Board of Supervisors allocated $150,000 of Strategic Plan funding to start a pilot Monthly Incentive Program to encourage the use of alternative modes of transportation to commute to work. The incentive program was launched in January 2023 and employees have two ways to earn up to $40 per month in subsidies.
The first is the Bike, Bus, Carpool and Walk Incentive, which provides a taxable, lump sum payment of $240 if an employee has taken the bus, carpooled, biked, or walked to work at least 48 days within a 6-month period. Those 48 days can be achieved through any combination of those modes and employees must use the Online Trip Tracker (https://sonomacounty.rideamigos.com) to log their trips to be eligible. At the end of each 6-month period, an eligibility list is generated in the Online Trip Tracker and then verified by Clean Commute program staff. As mentioned above, the County already provides free bus rides on Sonoma County Transit (SCT) and Santa Rosa CityBus, so beyond fuel costs and normal wear and tear on an employee’s bike or vehicle, this incentive provides additional compensation on a mode that is already free.
The second program is the My Commuter Check subsidy, which matches purchases made through the County’s pre-tax commuter benefit platform, My Commuter Check, up to $40 per month. This includes purchases of SMART passes, Clipper eCash, and other Clipper products. Because the subsidy is automatically applied to each order made in the My Commuter Check system, this incentive cannot be combined with the Bus, Carpool, Bike and Walk Incentive. This is considered a pre-tax subsidy, as long as the total My Commuter Check purchase is below $250 per month. The $250 per month is determined by the annual IRS limits on pre-tax income used for qualified commuter transportation benefits. The limit for 2023 is $300, and after deducting the value of the free bus benefit provided to employees, the balance remaining for My Commuter Check purchases is $250.
After the first 6-month reporting period, between January and June 2023, 60 employees qualified for the monthly incentive earning a total of $14,400 in incentives. While program participation was lower than expected, the Online Trip Tracker data clearly shows that the incentive increases the average monthly usage of carpool, bus, train, bike and walking. As you can see in the table below, after the incentive was launched in January 2023, bus, train and bike ridership increased by about 200% each. Carpooling and walking also increased by about 100%.
Average Monthly Trips Entered into Online Trip Tracker
|
|
Telework |
Carpool |
Bus |
Train |
Bike |
Walk |
|
Before Incentive (April - Dec 2022) |
8,121 |
408 |
17 |
28 |
117 |
92 |
|
After Incentive (Jan - Aug 2023) |
8,023 |
840 |
52 |
89 |
341 |
183 |
|
Percent Change |
-1.2% |
105.9% |
207.9% |
211.6% |
191.0% |
99.3% |
To encourage County employees to start trying alternate forms of transportation to commute to work, the County Administrator is recommending an increase of the monthly subsidy from $40 to $100 for a period of one year, beginning November 2023. For participants in the Bike, Bus, Carpool and Walk Incentive who are eligible to receive the lump sum payment for the July through December reporting period, July through October will be paid out at $40 per month and November and December will be paid out at $100. For My Commuter Check purchases, the $100 subsidy will be enabled for the December benefit month, with orders due November 10th.
It is hard to anticipate the cost of this increase, but for comparison, if the monthly incentive had been $100 beginning in January, the amount of subsidies paid out would have been $36,000 instead of $14,400. Staff will be monitoring the monthly incentive participation levels during the next year to determine how different subsidy levels impact alternate transportation usage and available funding levels and will report to the Board of Supervisors any findings during regular Climate Action and Resiliency Division updates.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Climate Action and Resiliency
Goal: Goal 4: Maximize sustainability and emissions reductions in all County Fleet vehicles
Objective: Objective 2: Invest in the County’s employee Clean Commute program to promote use of alternate modes of transportation, including bike and carpool incentives, and last mile solutions connecting bus and train stations to County worksites.
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
No
Prior Board Actions:
N/A
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 23-24 Adopted |
FY 24-25 Projected |
FY 25-26 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$50,000 |
$85,000 |
|
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$50,000 |
$85,000 |
|
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
$50,000 |
$85,000 |
|
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$50,000 |
$85,000 |
|
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
There is approximately $135,000 remaining of the Strategic Plan funding for this program, and $50,000 has been budgeted in FY 2023-24 to fund program activities, including an increase to the monthly incentive program and free bike parking. Should program participation be higher than expected, a budgetary adjustment will be included in an upcoming Consolidated Budgetary Adjustment item to increase appropriations.
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
1. Memorandum of Understanding
2. Resolution
3. Electric Vehicle Charging Locations
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
N/A