Laserfiche WebLink
JUN 22 1993 <br />BOOK 8 9 9 9 <br />At this time, the Board is still the DOPA. As the DOPA,. the Board <br />is responsible for overseeing and assisting the County's Community <br />Transportation Coordinator (CTC).- Presently, the Indian River <br />County Council on Aging (COA) serves as the County's CTC. <br />The principal role of a CTC is to coordinate the provision of <br />transportation disadvantaged services in its area. That involves <br />brokering trips; in essence, connecting transportation <br />disadvantaged clients with available seats. By so doing,, the <br />Coordinator should produce a more efficient transportation <br />disadvantaged system, with less duplication, fewer empty seats, and <br />a lower per trip cost. <br />In its effort to best utilize available resources, the Council On <br />Aging has attempted to use several of the School District's busses <br />for transportation disadvantaged trip purposes. In fact,, the <br />Council On Aging has previously used school busses for <br />transportation disadvantaged purposes. The COA's use of school <br />busses ended, however,, when it was determined that there was <br />inadequate insurance coverage for the busses, at those times that <br />the busses are used by the COA. Because the Council On Aging could <br />not obtain insurance coverage for School Board busses at a <br />reasonable cost and because the School Board's insurance does not <br />cover busses when used for transportation disadvantaged purposes, <br />the Council On Aging is currently unable to use these busses to <br />increase its transportation disadvantaged services. <br />In an attempt to resolve this insurance issues the County's Risk <br />Management Division has been working with both the Council On Aging <br />and the School Board. Recently, Risk Management determined that <br />the County can include the School Board on its excess insurances <br />Based upon that determination, Tom Fritz of the Council On Aging <br />has formally requested that the Board of County Commissioners <br />provide insurance coverage for school busses used for <br />transportation disadvantaged purposes. <br />ANALYSIS <br />To address the Council on Aging's request,, Risk Management and <br />Community Development have done a cursory analysis and have <br />identified some issues. Foremost among these issues is whether or <br />not the County should provide insurance coverage under its program <br />for the school busses. The second major issue is who should pay <br />the cost (and assume the risk) associated with insuring the busses. <br />0 Benefits <br />Before addressing the insurance issue, it is important to consider <br />the benefits of using school busses for transportation <br />disadvantaged purposes. According to the Council On Aging, these <br />benefits would be a 15.9% increase in total yearly one-way <br />passenger trips and a 6.5% increase in total yearly vehicle miles. <br />Specifically,, the busses will be used to transport clients to <br />congregate meal sites. <br />Besides the enhanced service, there may also be a funding benefit <br />in using the busses. Because total passenger trips and total <br />vehicle miles are two factors in the state's formula for <br />distributing transportation disadvantaged funds, the increase in <br />trips and miles associated with school bus use could increase the <br />Council on Aging's transportation disadvantaged grant funds. In <br />fact, the projected increase in passenger trips and vehicle miles <br />could provide sufficient additional transportation disadvantaged <br />funds to compensate for the approximate $20,,000 shortfall in <br />transportation disadvantaged revenue (for the Council On Aging) <br />projected for the next year. 58 <br />