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EUGENE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Work Session: Prioritizing and Allocating State and Federal Transportation Funds Meeting Date: June 9, 2004 Agenda Item Number: A Department: Public Works Staff Contact: Kurt Corey www. cl. eugene, or. us Contact Telephone Number: 682-5241 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY This is a work session requested by the City Council on the process used to prioritize and allocate state and federal transportation funds. BACKGROUND The prioritization and allocation of state and federal funds for area transportation projects is a complex and competitive process coordinated regionally by the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and guided locally by a variety of transportation plans and policies. The City of Eugene, through its City Council representatives, participates in decisions made by the MPO and its decision-making body, the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC). According to its by-laws, MPC is "an intergovernmental committee created to promote problem solving and to resolve intergovernmental disagreements among the two cities and the county." MPC is recognized as an official, decision-making body by the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area Plan. The MPO fulfills a federal requirement that a Transportation Management Area (TMA) with a population in excess of 200,000 have a designated body to coordinate the disbursement of federal Surface Transportation Planning Urban (STP-U) funds. The Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) and the MPC traditionally have facilitated regional transportation decision-making. With the recent designation of central Lane County as a federal TMA, LCOG' s board of directors designated an expanded MPC to serve as the federally required MPO for the region. The voting members of the MPO include the six elected officials who serve on the MPC (two each from Eugene, Springfield and Lane County), plus two appointed officials from Lane Transit District (LTD), an elected official from the City of Coburg, and a senior representative from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). The MPO's responsibilities include: · Providing policy guidance for regional transportation planning; · Adopting the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program to meet federal requirements; · Adopting an annual Unified Planning Work Program; and · Fulfilling other MPO/TMA responsibilities as set forth by federal or state statute or rule. L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040609\S040609A. doc