Innovation helps Laketran with 2012 budget
Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011By Brandon Baker, News-Herald
A line of Laketran buses sat behind the agency's Painesville Township headquarters Monday morning, but each vehicle was missing a key element.
Their scratched-off logos were representative of both the ongoing eBay auctions Laketran has been conducting and the lengths officials have gone to raise money for the fiscally recovering transit authority.
"We had people coming all the way from California. We've got these buses being sold to Africa, to Mexico, all around the world," Laketran General Manager Ray Jurkowski said.
Laketran has been selling many of the buses for about $3,000 apiece, or 50 percent more than leaders think they would have gotten from holding a local public auction. Jurkowski estimates that Laketran has sold about 35 of them this year.
"In government, you have to reinvent new ways of doing things, and they've been very good with that, in terms of trying to just pursue our new revenue streams and this with eBay," Laketran Board of Trustees President Kevin Malecek said of the agency's administration.
"Innovation has paid off in where we are financially, we're very stable right now."
The web-based auctions have combined with service cutbacks, slowly recovering sales tax receipts, and various human and health service reimbursements to guide Laketran back to economic stability.
The upcoming budget proposal of about $12 million for 2012 would mark the fourth consecutive balanced budget for Laketran. That amount is also nearly $1 million less than last year's budget.
Last week, Laketran buses began running until 10 p.m. on weeknights as a result of a board-approved operations extension for the holidays. The ruling also reinstituted Saturday service, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The extensions will last through Jan. 14.
Services had been curtailed since April 2009, when Jurkowski and the board believed changes were in order to have a fighting chance against the Great Recession.
Since then, Laketran saved about $1.6 million by using a mix of federal funding to acquire 51 new buses, enabling the sale of the old buses on eBay. The government doesn't allow such funding to be used for operational usage, but the savings they afforded Laketran from its capital budget helped the agency's overall rebound.
Jurkowski said Laketran opened a contingency reserve account this year, as it continues to lobby for state and federal legislation that would aid transportation systems in the way the government did about a decade ago. Aid has been on the steady decline since then. The agency made a few deposits totaling about $650,000 since July.
"We all felt that the financial recovery was working to the point that we can make a deposit like that," Jurkowski said.
Laketran also remains locked into a gas contact through 2012 that gives its buses fuel at about $2.32 per gallon. These positive developments have occurred while Laketran received the Federal Transit Administration's "Achievement of Excellence Certificate" for a perfect triennial review; an "Auditor of State Award with Distinction" from David Yost's office; and the "Distinguished Budget Presentation Award" from the Government Finance Officers Association.
Does any of this give riders a better chance at seeing Laketran return to its pre-April '09 level of service?
"There's always been this desire on the part of the board to try to restore service, but do it (in a sustainable fashion)," Malecek said. "We can't be in a situation that we're going to put it back, and then in three months' time, six months' time, say, ‘Sorry, we've got to take it all back again.'
"My attitude is always, you can't jerk the public around like that."
The community likely won't receive a more definitive answer until Laketran sees more sales-tax improvement. Each month has seen better receipts than the corresponding period of 2010. Still, Laketran's $5.8 million year-to-date sales tax money is nearly $200,000 less than what it got from in-county purchases four years ago.
The agency is hoping for the passage of a U.S. Senate bill that would allow state governments to collect sales tax from e-commerce. Currently, states can only do so when a consumer purchases from a retailer that has a physical presence in the buyer's state of residence. For example, a Lake County resident pays sales tax on a purchase from Macy's website, but not when he or she buys a gift from Amazon.com. State and local governments have long estimated that they lose billions each year because of the loophole.
Similarly, Laketran is in a holding pattern regarding a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Bainbridge Township. It would give federal spending flexibility to agencies like Laketran that run fewer than 100 buses during peak hours while servicing an area with more than 200,000 residents.
"We live in an uncertain world with federal and state funding," Jurkowski said. "Even though that funding is uncertain, I think the board's top priority is to make a commitment — and I think we can do this because of the progress and success of the financial recovery plan — to keeping the existing levels of service we have now and the existing fare structure we have now for 2012 and 2013."
Laketran receives Federal, State and local accolades for financial management
Published: Monday, November 21, 2011Lake County, OH -- Laketran has received recognition at the local, state and federal levels for suburb fiscal management of the county transit agency.
Locally, Laketran received its fifteenth consecutive clean audit. Laketran received an “unqualified opinion”, the highest possible ranking given for this type of audit, from a third party auditor James G. Zupka, CPA, Inc. Zupka is contracted by the State of Ohio to conduct Laketran’s audit and issue an opinion, which is subject to review by the Auditor of State.
At the state level, Laketran received the “Auditor of State Award with Distinction” from the office of David Yost, Auditor of State. The award is given for audits that do not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies or questioned costs among many other items.
“All of us at Laketran take great pride in our work and are very conscientious about managing the public funds that have been entrusted to us by our taxpayers,” stated Laketran controller Lisa Colling.
Nationally, Laketran’s controller, Lisa Colling, and the Finance Department have been honored by The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) with a “Distinguished Budget Presentation Award” for Laketran’s $12 million 2011 budget.
“The award represents a significant achievement by the entity. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meet the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the budget award, Laketran satisfied nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. The guidelines assess Laketran’s budget as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device. Laketran’s 2011 budget documents rated “proficient” in all four categories, and then 14 mandatory criteria within those categories, to achieve the award,” commented Stephen Gauthier in a prepared statement by the GFOA.
Of the GFOA’s 17,400 members, only 1,250 government entities received the Award. This is the 14th consecutive year Laketran has been honored with this achievement.
Most recently, Laketran has received perfect results on a major review by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Laketran received an “Achievement of Excellence Certificate” on November 7 acknowledging that it had met all the requirements of the areas examined in the FTA’s Triennial Review, a federal audit conducted every three years. Laketran was one of ten transit agency’s that earned this distinguished award. Thirty Seven (37) were audited by the FTA in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
The Triennial Review is FTA’s assessment of Laketran’s compliance with Federal requirements determined by the examination of grant management practices and program implementation.
“The Triennial Review examines 24 areas. No deficiencies were found. Laketran is to be commended for having a perfect Triennial Review,” wrote Dominick J. Gatto, director, Office of Operations and Program Management for FTA. This is the fifth consecutive perfect Triennial Review Laketran received over the last 15 years.
“Laketran relies on Federal grants to fund capital projects. Making sure we are compliant in grant reporting allows us to secure $2.5 million each year of federal funding to replace obsolete buses, maintain our bus fleet and provide our customers with more amenities like bus stop shelters and passenger information at bus stops throughout the county. We take this review very seriously,” explained general manager Ray Jurkowski.
“We are very proud to be the recipient of these distinguished honors and prestigious awards from the state and federal offices. These honors reflect Laketran’s dedication and commitment to the highest standards and continue an on-going legacy of prudent financial management,” commented board president, Kevin Malecek.
Laketran Extends Hours for Holiday Season
Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011On Monday, October 24, 2011, Laketran’s Board of Trustees voted to temporarily restore weeknight and Saturday in-county fixed route and Dial-a-Ride service for the holiday shopping season. The additional service will operate from Monday, November 14, 2011 through Saturday, January 14, 2012.
The extended hours temporarily restore services back to the levels Laketran operated before the start of the economic recession which resulted in significant losses in sales tax revenues leaving Laketran no alternative in 2009 but to reduce services.
“Based upon the progress of our Financial Recovery Plan, Laketran is now able to temporarily restore weeknight & Saturday fixed route and Dial-a-Ride service. We felt that restoring bus service during the holiday season would best serve the community to increase access to holiday job opportunities and encourage shopping in Lake County,” explained Ray Jurkowski, Laketran’s general manager.
The holiday season hours will temporarily extend weeknight service from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and bring back Saturday service from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saturday service will operate on two-hour headways, as it did prior to the 2009 service cuts included in Laketran’s Financial Recovery Plan.
“We are very pleased to be able to temporarily restore these services. Along with many other agencies, Laketran had a difficult decision to cut service to balance our budget during the current recession. We hope this reassures the community that our primary goal, while being good stewards of taxpayer funds, has been to bring service back to the community when the financial opportunity arises,” said board president, Kevin Malecek encouragingly.
For more information on Laketran’s extended hours, please call 1-888-LAKETRAN or 440-354-6100.