The Sedona City Council did a little housekeeping last week on a topic on the minds of many these days — transit. On May 28, council voted to continue an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Cottonwood for operation of the Verde Lynx bus service.
Council members approved a budgeted $299,960 for the upcoming fiscal year beginning Monday, July 1. During the meeting, Sedona Vice Mayor John Martinez asked whether or not the city gets to see the operating budget for the Lynx as well as ridership numbers.
To that, City Manager Justin Clifton said “yes.”Clifton went on to say that the city has expressed interest in expanding hours to accommodate employees riding the bus from Cottonwood to work in Sedona. Those extended hours are expected to start in October. As for providing Lynx service to the Village of Oak Creek, Clifton said that’s something that may be considered.
“We’ve historically said we’d probably wouldn’t entertain that idea without a funding partner like the county,” he said in terms of service to the VOC. “But if we decided otherwise, we’d go to them and say this is what we’d like to do. They come back with a cost and we review that and then discuss it with council.”
In early 2012, council authorized the termination of the city’s contract with the Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority for the administration and operation of the Verde Lynx transit system.
A month later, council entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the city of Cottonwood for the management and operation of the Verde Lynx transit system. Per the IGA, Cottonwood assumed responsibility for the operation and management of the Verde Lynx, a city of Sedona report states.
The IGA was effective July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2014, and provided for two two-year renewals, but was silent on the process of how to exercise those renewals. In January 2015, Sedona staff prepared an amendment to the contract acknowledging both parties’ mutual intent to renew the contract for an additional four years through June 30, 2018, with the option of an automatic renewal for two more years, through June 30, 2020. That amendment was approved by council on Jan. 27, 2015.
“Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Sedona staff, when it came time for Cottonwood to sign the amendment, their legal counsel struck the provision for the agreement to automatically renew for the additional two years — through 2020,” the Sedona report states. The Cottonwood Transit Manager was only made aware of this change a few months ago after the expiration of the agreement.”
The report states the only changes made in this new version of the agreement are as follows:
Process for development of annual operating budget and cost allocation remains the same, but specific dates by which each party must make notifications have been removed.
Language addressing potential year-end surpluses that could arise from mid-year service level changes was removed, as billing is done in arrears, not in advance. This means no surpluses would ever exist. Previous language stating that Cottonwood will not subsidize the Verde Lynx has been removed. Cottonwood does and always has contributed to the costs of the Verde Lynx system. It is unclear why that language existed in the original 2012 IGA.
Existing contract states that Cottonwood will bill Sedona monthly, but in practice, billing has been and will continue to be done quarterly. This section was amended to reflect the quarterly billing process.
Reflects new effective date with automatic renewals unless and until either party terminates.
This renewal was brought forward to rectify this error and ensure both parties are covered by an active agreement. The new agreement will be effective July 1, which is when Cottonwood will renew agreements with all its partner agencies and will allow for additional two-year extensions until either party chooses.
Ron Eland can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 122 or by email at reland@larsonnewspapers.com
