Memorandum
Date August 18, 2016
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director
RE Federal Fiscal Year 2016 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP): Proposed Budget Adjustments to Certain 3C Projects
Approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), on the recommendation of the UPWP Committee, vote to approve the budget adjustments to certain 3C projects, as presented in this memorandum.
At this point in the federal fiscal year (FFY), just after the third quarter, certain spending patterns have become clear, and MPO staff requests your concurrence with the UPWP Committee on a slate of budget adjustments designed to accommodate these patterns. Table 1 shows these adjustments, along with explanatory comments. The UPWP Committee reviewed these adjustments on July 28, 2016, and recommends approval by the MPO.
These adjustments pertain to selected 3C-funded Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) line items in FFY16; as shown in Table 1, the net result of the adjustments will be zero. These adjustments would simply transfer funds from one set of line items to another to reflect actual spending to date, as well as spending that is projected to occur between now and the end of the FFY.
In any given year, expenditures by project line item do not conform to expectations in all cases. There are two major reasons for this. The first concerns staffing. When someone resigns from CTPS, there is almost always a gap between when that person departs and when a new person is hired to fill the position. This staffing gap results in lower expenditures on certain projects than had been planned when the UPWP budget was being developed. These gaps are unavoidable given the time it takes to recruit new professional-level staff and get him or her up to speed.
The second reason why expenditures do not always unfold as planned has to do with the simple fact that, in addition to staffing levels, many other things can and do change after the UPWP has been developed. Budget estimates for each project line item are made in the spring of the year, a full six months before work commences in the subsequent FFY. Then, once work is in progress, various things arise that can affect how much staff time is allocated to one project versus another. For example, in the current FFY, we undertook certain particularly complex improvements to the travel model; consequently, we expended slightly more time and budget on that project than anticipated.
| Project # | Project | Current Budget | Proposed Change | Proposed Budget | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90011 | Support to the MPO and its Subcommittees | $262,300 | $24,900 | $287,200 | Various reasons, such as more presentations made to MPO than anticipated |
| 10104 | Unified Planning Work Program | $98,000 | $20,400 | $118,400 | Document, and to some extent process, revamped with new manager |
| 10103 | Transportation Improvement Program | $174,200 | $15,300 | $189,500 | More work on revising selection criteria than anticipated |
| 90028 | Provision of Materials in Accessible Formats | $68,400 | $15,000 | $83,400 | More documents needed to be rendered accessible than anticipated |
| 90024 | Disability Access Support | $85,900 | $14,200 | $100,100 | More effort on AACT Summit than anticipated |
| 11244 | Regional Model Enhancement | $740,400 | $14,000 | $754,400 | Some more complex model improvements than anticipated |
| 90021 | RTAC Support | $74,800 | $13,800 | $88,600 | Generally more effort than budgeted |
| 90026 | Public Participation Process | $96,300 | $9,100 | $105,400 | Added facets of process with new public engagement specialist |
| 10112 | Air Quality Conformity and Support | $24,500 | $8,400 | $32,900 | More work with MOVES emissions rate model necessary than had been thought |
| 11150 | Roadway Safety Audits | $13,800 | ($2,000) | $11,800 | Slightly fewer audits than budgeted will be necessary |
| 11132 | Transportation Equity/EJ Support | $100,900 | ($2,200) | $98,700 | Lapse in filling vacant Equity Coordinator's vacancy created a slight surplus |
| 90014 | Planning Topics | $3,200 | ($3,100) | $100 | Less work than anticipated. Have eliminated this line item in next UPWP |
| 90025 | Transreport | $31,400 | ($3,100) | $28,300 | Just able to do what was needed slightly more efficiently than budgeted |
| 90019 | Subregional Outreach | $4,800 | ($3,700) | $1,100 | Less work than anticipated. Have eliminated this line item in next UPWP |
| 13801 | Livable Community Workshops | $25,200 | ($4,000) | $21,200 | Less work than anticipated and staff vacancy. Have eliminated in next UPWP |
| 13150 | Community Transportation Technical Assistance | $40,600 | ($6,000) | $34,600 | Requests for assistance less expensive than budgeted and staff vacancy |
| 90090 | General Graphics | $90,600 | ($6,700) | $83,900 | Hard to predict because staff relies on this when not charging to specific projects |
| 11355 | Title VI: MPO | $32,000 | ($16,300) | $15,700 | Substantially less work than anticipated |
| 10101 | Long-Range Transportation Plan | $318,200 | ($88,000) | $230,200 | Overall, less effort required than anticipated |
| blank | TOTAL | $2,285,500 | $0 | $2,285,500 | blank |
Total 3C funding redistributed among projects - $135,100