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renegotiated; however, LTD felt that as a member of the community it was important to provide the service to help resolve traffic and parking problems at the stadium on game days and the current arrangement covered the cost of that service. Mr. Hamm added that as a public entity, LTD could not be in the business of making a profit or competing against private charter services and it recovered its costs for the service while maintaining a community partnership with the University. Mr. Pap6 commented on the recent newspaper article on bus service to McKenzie Bridge for a nominal fare. He questioned whether the fare could be increased incrementally. Mr. Kleger replied that it was the policy of the board that suburban service paid for itself and did not subsidize urban service, and urban service did not subsidize suburban service. He said the amount of service going to each out-of-town route was what the combined fare box revenue and payroll tax revenue from that part of the system would support. He mentioned that an earlier experiment with a zone fare system was an administrative headache and encouraged a large amount of fare cheating; the board decided at that time that the cost to administer the system was too high. Mr. Pap~ noted that there was a 20 percent match required for construction of a RideSource administrative and maintenance facility. He asked why LTD was constructing a separate facility when it was his perception that the existing LTD maintenance facility seemed more than able to accommodate RideSource. Ms. Hocken responded that RideSource was the paratransit operation that LTD was required by federal law to provide as equivalent service to those who were unable to use the fixed route system. She said current RideSource facility was in a rented and inadequate facility that was no longer available. Mr. Kleger said a grant from the State's special transportation fund was paying for at least 50 percent of the cost of the facility and the property LTD had purchased could also be used in the future as the starting point for buses serving the west side of town, thereby reducing expenses. Ms. Bettman said she wanted to see LTD adopt a new theme, such as "service first" or "bus rides are us" because that was its primary mission. Referring to a policy question regarding whether the City had a role in financing bus service or capital improvements, she stated that she had a problem with LTD's existing framework in which the board was not elected. She said the council could only provide input under the present structure, rather than direction. Ms. Bettman asked if LTD spent the payroll taxes from Eugene employers in Eugene. Diane Hellekson, LTD Director of Finance and Information Technology, explained that the businesses that paid payroll taxes supported an infrastructure system that provided community transportation. She said the revenue was not divided into pots of money by geographic location and then invested because that would not put the service where people needed it. She stated that businesses paid the tax, but the main users of the system were workers, residents, and students so the system would be out of balance if funds were used primarily to benefit those who contributed to the revenue. Ms. Bettman asked if the new automated system would allow LTD to track passenger origin and destination and compare that data to revenue collected in each jurisdiction. Mr. Kleger said there were limits to LTD's ability to use that information as Ms. Bettman had suggested because the system could not track when a specific passenger got on or off the bus. He said that LTD periodically conducted an origination/destination study that provided useful information, but those studies were very expensive. Ms. Bettman said another issue for her was that funds that could be used for operations were shifted to capital improvements. She reiterated that she thought service was of the utmost importance. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 23, 2004 Page 8 Work Session