Council seeks reduction in city’s share of bus subsidies

Barbara Diamond

The City Council wants to keep the municipal transit system running,

preferably without reducing the level of service and without

subsidizing it from the parking fund.

Visitors to the city will have to help but probably can’t be asked

to shoulder the entire burden, according to a report by Director of

Public Works Steve May.

“To sustain the existing level of service without contributions

from the Parking Fund, fees at the ACT V lot would need to be

increased from the present $4 per day to $19 per day,” May told the

council.

May opined that increases of that magnitude would not likely be

acceptable to customers. The calculation was included in the report

at the request of Mayor Cheryl Kinsman.

The staff’s recommendation was to raise fees at ACT V to $5 per

day, which the council had previously approved and to continue

subsidizing the system with money from the fund, currently about

$400,000 a year.

Councilman Wayne Baglin, who requested the report in November, was

not happy with what he heard.

“I was hoping for a dialogue, but this dialogue is smoke and

mirrors,” Baglin said. “We are throwing gas on a fire. This report

doesn’t satisfy me.”

At the current level of service, Laguna’s transit system is

costing $1.8 million for fiscal year 2003-04, expected to increase to

$1.9 million in 2004-05.

The city’s share is about 20%. The rest comes from county and

state subsidies. Few if any transit systems operate without

subsidies, but the council wants its share reduced.

Baglin suggested that the staff consider reinstating fares on the

Main Line during Festival Season, which were dropped last year for

the first time and trimming operational costs by eliminating the

Ritz-Carlton as the southern terminus.

And dare it be mentioned, increases in meter fees might be

reconsidered. Starting the festival tram service later than 9 a.m.

was another suggestion.

“We have to get the cost of the service under control,”

Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said. “The Parking Fund should be used

only to pay to build more parking.”

From one perspective, the subsidy from the Parking Fund is paying

for parking. The system not only serves people who have no vehicles,

it serves those who pay to park those vehicles and ride the buses or

the trams to get around town.

“The purpose of the trolleys at ACT V is to get people to park

before they get into town,” Parking Committee veteran Carolyn Wood

said.

ACT V parking used to be free, and fares were charged on the

festival trams. To the surprise of many, festival tram use increased

dramatically when the fares were replaced by parking fees.

“Free trams from ACT V to Downtown is our one winner,” Baglin

said. “We don’t want to change that.”

Pearson suggested that parking fees at ACT V could be raised to

$11, only a dollar more than the state’s increase to $10 at Crystal

Cove State Park.

“I would like staff’s recommendation for an increase at ACT V that

won’t deter people from parking there,” Councilman Steve Dicterow

said. “If we didn’t have a circulation problem, I wouldn’t care about

this, but we do, and it affects our quality of life.”

“It has been a fundamental council policy for the past several

years to get people to park at ACT V,” City Manager Ken Frank said.

“The [staff] recommendations tonight were based on that. But if the

council is making a fundamental change in policy, you should let the

staff know.”