Transit Finance Learning Exchange

Sharepoint website is available for members use TFLEx has created a new website in Sharepoint for its members. It is located at https://tflex.securespsites.com/ (Password required) At this time, we are not creating new accounts on the old site. If you are requesting a new account, visit New Account Registration (Sharepoint) to request an account on the new site.

Summary of TFLEx Spring Workshop
Public Private Partnerships (P3)
April 6 - 8, 2009
Chicago, Illinois

The Spring 2009 TFLEx Workshop was held in Chicago, Illinois, and was hosted by Joe Costello and the RTA. Our sincere thanks go out to Joe and his staff for the wonderful job they did in making this workshop a successful event. Forty-five people registered for this workshop. Everything was well organized and the presentations were informative. Thanks again to everyone at Chicago's RTA.

The main topic of this workshop was Public Private Partnerships (P3). Stephen E. Schlickman, Executive Director of the RTA, welcomed participants and gave an overview of the workshop objectives. After his remarks, Stephen turned the program over to representatives of the Government Finance Officers Association for a primer on Public Private Partnerships. This session started with a discussion of the benefits and challenges of P3s. The presenters also talked about risk allocation and how important it is in developing P3s. They reviewed different types of P3s with examples of projects from around the country. A discussion of financing and funding sources followed, and the session ended with a case study of a proposed California high-speed rail system.

During Monday's lunch, guest speaker Ellen Rissman, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, gave a sobering talk on the current state of the economy and what benchmarks the Fed uses in judging the state of the economy.

Monday afternoon, the first panel discussion of the workshop included Robert Frye, Rochester Gennesee RTA, Scott Schroeder, BART, Terry Cordell, Las Vegas RTC, and Joe Seliga, law firm of Mayer Brown. This panel focused on the pitfalls and lessons learned from P3s in both the capital and operating areas.

Joe Costello welcomed participants on Tuesday morning and introduced Tom Mulvihill from KPMG, who provided a view from the "Private" partner of P3s. His discussion included a review of risk allocation, traditional versus alternative funding, P3 examples from around the world and his view of the future of P3s in transit. The second panel of the workshop included Randy Blankenhorn, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Rhonda Reed, Federal Transit Administration, Kevin Adams, MV Transportation, Robert Kelly, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Larry Wilson, Illinois DOT, and Mike Schneider, Co-Chair, APTA P3 Task Force. They presented a variety of industry viewpoints on P3s. Discussing public interest viewpoints in the third panel were Eric Reese on the GFOA's recommended practices on P3's, Frank Beale, Chicago Metropolis 2020, Maria Choca Urban, Chicago's Center for Neighborhood Technology.

The lunch speaker on Tuesday was Mike Pagano, an economist from the University of Illinois at Chicago, who discussed current revenue trends and the future state of affairs that will impact the P3 environment.

Tuesday afternoon's panel included representatives from the transit properties in the Chicago region discussing their views on P3s. The panel included Melinda Metzgar, PACE, Bill Tupper, METRA, Ken Kabira, CTA and Heather Tabbert, RTA. Bennett Johnson, former budget director for the City of Chicago also talked about some of the efforts the City has undertaken in P3's. The workshop concluded with an example of an operating P3 from Dayton, Ohio. Representatives from Commuter Advertising Company discussed their partnership with the greater Dayton RTA for audio ads on transit vehicles. Stephen Schlickman wrapped up the workshop by thanking all the participants and attendees.

The Fall 2009 Workshop will be held in Orange County, California. The topic of the workshop will be "The New Normal," centering around the current economic situation, how agencies are dealing with funding issues and new methodologies for projecting revenues. More information will be forthcoming, including the dates for the workshop.

The regular Business Meeting was chaired by Joe Costello on Wednesday morning. Minutes of this meeting are attached as a separate document. All members are encouraged to attend the Business Meetings at the workshops.

All presentations from the Spring Workshop are available to members on the TFLEx Sharepoint website at https://tflex.securespsites.com.

TFLEx Accomplishments

Bi-Annual Workshops

TFLEx members meet twice annually to share best practices and "needs and leads," learn from industry experts and work together to develop and maintain the ongoing TFLEx Business Plan. These are facilitated workshops where all members are able to participate in roundtable discussions.

Training and Professional Development

TFLEx members identified a need to educate finance staff in the field of transit without extensive costs. Transit 101 was developed as a web-based instructional tool to bring information regarding the transit field to the desktops of staff members whether in finance or other departments. Modules deployed to date include Federal, State, and Local Funding; Procurement; Paratransit Operations: Fare Policy; and Regulatory Framework. Others are in development with a total of 26 planned.

Financial Operations Best Practices

Sharing management tools such as benchmarking, activity-based costing, process mapping, balanced scorecard, key performance indicators, and best practices has been an ongoing activity of members attending the bi-annual workshops. Transit systems taking the lead in these practices share their successes and "opportunities" with their fellow members.

Website Services

Membership in TFLEx provides access to entire TFLEx website. Here members share such information as:

• Posting of templates for finance policy and procedure manuals, RFPs, MOUs, etc.
• "Needs and leads" forum, members post questions that they are researching and request any available information from other members.
• Workshop agendas and presentations.
• Information directory of all TFLEx member contracts.
• Members have access to the complete website, while visitors may only view certain areas.

TFLEx Membership

TFLEx has a goal of 30-35 members. While membership is filling up fast, we still have room for additional members. Annual membership dues are determined by agency size

Membership includes attendance at the twice yearly workshops for a nominal fee. Click here for more information on how to join.