HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 07292014 - C.128RECOMMENDATION(S):
ACKNOWLEDGE that the County is in compliance with the Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program (SB 1339), and
DIRECT Conservation and Development Department staff to develop and implement strategies that increase
employee use of the County’s vanpool program and to report back periodically to the Board of Supervisors on the
outcomes from all the County’s Transit Demand Management strategies to ensure continued compliance with SB
1339.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact is associated with the Committee's recommendations.
BACKGROUND:
SB 1339 (Yee), signed by the Governor in fall 2012, authorized the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air
District) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to jointly adopt a regional commute benefit
program on a pilot basis through the end of 2016. Pursuant to SB 1339, in 2013 the Air District and MTC developed
a Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program to promote the use of alternative commute modes such as transit,
ridesharing, and bicycling. On June 3, 2014, the Board of Supervisors referred to the Internal Operations Committee
a review of the County's compliance with Senate Bill (SB) 1339 related to the Bay Area Commuter Benefits Program.
The County Administrator asked the Department of Conservation and Development (DCD) to review the extent to
which current County commuter programs meet the requirements of SB 1339.
APPROVE OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
Action of Board On: 07/29/2014 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
Clerks Notes:
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
AYE:John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II
Supervisor
Mary N. Piepho, District III
Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV
Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V
Supervisor
Contact: Theresa Speiker
925-335-1080
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the
Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: July 29, 2014
, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors
By: June McHuen, Deputy
cc: IOC Staff, DCD,
C.128
To:Board of Supervisors
From:INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE
Date:July 29, 2014
Contra
Costa
County
Subject:BAY AREA COMMUTER BENEFITS PROGRAM
BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)
DCD has reviewed the requirements of SB 1339 and concludes, and the County Administrator concurs, that the
County already has sufficient Transportation Demand Management strategies in place to meet the requirements of
this law. DCD recommended to our Committee an expansion of the County’s existing “Employee Commute
Benefit Program” to encourage greater participation by employees. However, after considering the pros and cons
of expansion, and considering that the regional commute benefit program is only a two-year pilot program and the
County is already in compliance with the requirements, we are not recommending expansion at this time.
The DCD proposal before the committee recommended expanding the existing program by creating a new pre-tax
payroll deduction benefit for any county employee who would choose to participate. On the one hand, the
“Employee Commute Benefit Program” can be viewed as another opportunity that encourages employees to put
aside pre-tax wages to help finance a public good; in this instance up to a $130/month set-aside in pre-tax dollars
that could be used to pay for the employee’s public transit expenses to get back and forth from work. However,
there are a number of issues that would have to be discussed with our Labor Unions before such a program could
be implemented.
In addition to the labor relations perspective, our Committee also considered how this expansion would be
administered and financed. The report notes that expansion would have additional costs associated with program
set-up and administration, although costs are projected to be offset somewhat by a savings in County-paid FICA
taxes. The cost to set up the pre-tax deduction program is estimated to be in the range of $9,000-13,000 and the
yearly administration and management costs, if provided by County employees, are estimated in the range of
$80,000-95,000. Another option for providing program management and claims verification and processing
would be to outsource the program’s administration and management with costs estimated to be in the range of
$119,000-130,000, depending on the array of services purchased and the number of employees who participate.
Under either option, these amounts would be new County costs added to what is currently being spent for the
County’s existing transit management activities; costs would be potentially offset by any revenue from FICA
savings accrued to the County for sponsoring a new pre-tax offering to employees. Total FICA savings would be
based on the number of employees who chose to participate, with an estimate from the Auditor’s Office of $120
per year in FICA tax savings for each employee who participated in the program to the maximum amount.
Consequently, about 1,000 employees would have to participate at the maximum amount per year in order to fully
offset the estimated annual cost to administer the program.
As the report notes, John Muir Health considered offering this benefit to their employees but chose not to proceed
because they determined their current offerings to be sufficient and estimated the set-up and ongoing
administration of the program would be cost-prohibitive.
DCD’s proposal also addressed telecommuting and 9/80 work schedules. As noted, the County began offering
these programs to employees in 2004 and they were aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Since that time, these
options for adjusted work schedules have been widely used throughout most County departments. From both
financial and administrative perspectives, the widespread use of them has made implementing the new payroll
system significantly more costly than expected and much more time-consuming and complex to set up. Also,
because the County has needed to reduce staffing in departments and streamline operations to handle the effects of
the recession, expansion in the foreseeable future of either the 9/80 work schedule or telecommuting is not
recommended by County administration.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
No impact, since the County is currently in compliance with the Bay Area Commute Benefit Program (SB 1339).
ATTACHMENTS
DCD Report on Bay Area Commuter Program 7-7-14