MEETING NOTES

Date: September 12, 2001

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Location: Chicago Area Transportation Study

Charles Allen, AAA-Chicago Motor Club

Steve Call, Federal Highway Administration

JoAnn Eckmann, Lake County Citizen/Chair

Kim Grimshaw-Bolton, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission

Joelle McGinnis, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

Linda Bolte, CATS

Jock Hardy, CATS

Suzanne Lanzafame, CATS

Veronica Lopez, CATS

Ron Thomas, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission

Minutes were amended to reflect that the task force approved a new mission statement.

Report on the public involvement strategy for the TIP, Air Quality Conformity, CMAQ Program and Annual Meeting.

Three items are coming out for public comment and review:

Air Quality Neutral 2002-2006 TIP

2002 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program

Air Quality Conformity Supplement

Ms. Bolte noted that it is a federal requirement for the MPO to have an annual meeting on the status of transportation planning assumptions. CATS decided that the meeting will be held in conjunction with the Policy Committee meeting on October 11, 2001. An open house will follow the meeting. This will allow people to ask questions and policy committee members to "show and tell" what they are doing in transportation.

In addition, a newsletter that describes the items for public comment and also announces the meeting will be coming out soon. Health was chosen as the theme for this newsletter, which is intended to give the public a sense of how important air quality is. The CMAQ projects will be included. A draft of the newsletter was passed out and task force members in attendance were encouraged to provide feedback.

A series of press releases will be included along with the newsletter. The first will announce the documents up for public review, the second will announce the results of the WPC meeting, the third will announce the public comment period, the fourth will announce the Policy Committee meeting and the final press release will announce the final determination of the Policy Committee.

Status of consultant contracts

The scope of the work for the 2030 should be done in about two weeks. The first contract costs $75,000 and is to review the CATS process and make recommendations for enhancements. This will include an evaluation of the task force. The second contract is over a three-year period and is $200,000 per fiscal year. The purpose of it is to assist us in the public involvement strategy for the Regional Transportation Plan-Shared Path 2030. The proposed consultant will assist with writing the final plan, as well as popular documents for public comment, and will help to plan press conferences and meetings. Ms. Bolte is still working on the second contract, which should be completed in about two weeks.

Report on the July 30, 2001 working group meeting on membership strategy

Members need to reach a consensus on the role of the task force. Everyone at today’s meeting gave his or her opinion on the task force’s role.

Ms. Eckmann felt that there was a level of frustration in the meetings.

Mr. Call felt that the task force needs to go back and evaluate the public involvement plan and then make changes.

Ms. Bolte felt that the task force should see how other MPOs deal with public involvement. One role of the task force would be to make sure that plans are implemented and that the plans have components of the mission statement. She also felt that the task force should be brought together to oversee the outreach plan.

Ms. Eckmann felt we needed to receive information earlier.

Ms. Bolte said that the meetings should have more substance.

Ms. McGinnis felt that the task force is also a resource for staff. The members could at times bring their expertise to CATS staff.

Mr. Allen agreed that they are a staff resource and that public involvement is important.

Ms. Grimshaw-Bolton felt that a standard process should be followed and that the task force should take on an advisory role. She also felt it was very "give and take," everyone has something to offer.

Ms. Eckmann agreed and is hoping that the consultant will set up a system for the task force as she feels the structure needs to be modified.

Ms. Bolte added that she felt that people might be more inclined to attend if there were more action items on the agenda. She suggested the task force not meet monthly and instead have a working group that meets monthly on a particular aspect needing more attention.

Mr. Hardy felt that other organizations should be able to head up a project and create an outline in order to assist CATS. Outreach is everyone bringing their ideas together.

Mr. Thomas felt that there should be three components to the mission statement. They are a CATS mission statement, a public involvement mission statement and then a task force mission statement.

All of the task forces will update their mission statements and membership lists, and then the PITF will begin to update the Public Involvement Plan.

Another idea was to have e-mails sent that would act as progress reports between meetings.

Mr. Thomas announced that there is a NIPC public forum on October 27.

The next meeting of the task force will be held on Wednesday, November 28^th, at 9:00am at the CATS offices. The working group meeting will be held on October 24^th at 10:00am at the CATS offices.