WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=9TmiED1R1WQ

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: 9TmiED1R1WQ):
- 00:05:10: Meeting Start, Introductions, Ride Share Program Overview
- 00:08:15: Freebie Presentation: Community Focus and Service Overview
- 00:11:56: Freebie's Company Overview, Qualifications, and Operation
- 00:14:19: Freebie's Operational Plan and Future Advancements
- 00:17:48: Freebie's Reporting, Technology, and Driver Overview
- 00:23:02: Freebie's Marketing, Cost, Launch, and Summation
- 00:25:30: Transition to Circuit Transit Presentation and Evaluation
- 00:28:47: Circuit's Presentation: Introduction and RFP Goals
- 00:31:01: Circuit's Differentiators, Approach, and Program Evaluation
- 00:33:47: Circuit's Technology, Fleet, and Community Integration
- 00:35:44: Circuit's Pricing Model, Accountability, and Safety
- 00:39:30: Circuit's Long-Term Sustainability and Private Funding Ideas
- 00:42:43: Circuit's W2 Employee Model and Flexible Service Model
- 00:44:25: Begin Public Comment Period, Sue First Question on Costs
- 00:48:15: Sue Follow-up and Judy First Question
- 00:49:22: Sheila Comment and Anna, AM Driver, Testimony
- 00:53:45: Jamie comment, RFP and FDOT requirements discussion
- 00:57:45: Judy on Resort Funding and Sue second round of questions
- 01:04:08: Sue and Jamie questions continue about services
- 01:11:56: Alan and Ancraft comment
- 01:14:05: AM Driver Testimony
- 01:16:30: Review of process and Jamie, Third Question
- 01:19:13: Council Member Comments and Meeting Adjournment


Part: 1

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All right, we're going to get started. >> It's 5:30, so we notice it's for our 5:30 public workshop. I'm Ron Saunders. I'm the village manager. And before we start, I always like to introduce my bosses. We have four of them here. We have the vice mayor, Sharon Mahoney. We

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have Council Member Anna Richards, Council Member Deb Gillis, and Council Member Steve Freriedman. And uh thank you for all for all four of you for coming. And uh Mayor Horton's out of town, but he may be zooming in, but he's uh he's not available, but he would have been here if he was in town. But he said

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make sure you know he's paying attention. Uh with that, the reason for the workshop is uh as y'all know, we have the on demand ride share program that we've been partnering with the state of Florida on. Uh for several years now, we've had an agreement with uh Bree LLC, which is DBBA, TBA freebie.

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Uh that agreement uh was expiring uh next month, June, and uh the council wanted to go ahead with an RFP to get see what responses we had. We had an RFP on the street. Uh it was well advertised. We had two responses uh from uh the current provider freebie be free

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and uh and circuit transit. Both are very good proposals. Uh they were uh at the Tuesday May 12th uh council meeting. Uh we did uh consider um a recommendation to explain the process. The RF goes out and then I appoint as

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manager a staff committee to review whatever proposals came in. They only only had two this time. Uh they reviewed it, they scored them. I have the score sheet here. He wants to see it in the minutes of the meeting. Uh the staff recommendation was for be freebie. We brought that recommendation to council.

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Uh we included at the request of council members uh both proposals. Uh so they were both available 24 hours beforehand, but there was a a a request uh that we have more information for the public because uh we didn't get it out more than 24 hours in advance. And so we wanted to have both proposals presented

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to the public, answer any questions. To be clear, there'll be no decisions tonight. This is a public workshop to listen to the proposals, whatever they want to talk about to answer any questions from the public, but there can be no decisions. We can't make changes to the RFP. Uh we're just going to be able to listen tonight. If the council,

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who are the ultimate deciders, want to make any changes down the road, that's certainly up to them. So, for tonight's purposes, this a publicly noticed workshop. That's why we can have more than one council person here. It's not a violation of sunshine in case somebody has that question. uh and we wanted and both sides both both parties are here

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and so I thought we'd do we'd have a freebie go first uh and and and give this whatever information they want we'll let circa chanic go up next and then I guess after both make their presentations then we can have any questions from the audience and go from there any questions before we start okay

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so the first presentation will be from Bree LLC DBA freebie All right. Uh, good evening everybody. Um, my name is Jason Spiegel, one of the co-founders and CEO here at Freeb. And really before I I jump into it, um, I really just want to start by saying

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this. Isa Morad is not just another contract for us. It really never has been. Uh this community meets something very personal to myself and to my partner. Um growing up we came down here four, five, six times every single year going fishing. Uh you know, spending

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time with family and really just creating memories that that last an entire lifetime here. Um same thing with my partner. He would come down here um and the place was so special to him that, you know, he decided to get married here. And he still comes down here four, five, six times a year because again, we love this community.

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And I think that matters because it shows in how we've operated for over seven years. We haven't treated this like a transactional relationship. We've continued to invest in the program. Uh and more importantly, we understand how important pricing is to this community. We've provided grandfathered pricing,

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some of the lowest in the industry. And today, we're still coming in about roughly about $180,000 less than the other proposer. Um the contract for us, it's really not a profitable contract. We're not really here to to make money on this contract. We operate it because we we truly care about this community.

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Um we love the place, we understand it, and we've really proven that through our service that we've delivered here since 2018. Um and that really brings me to the bigger point. The proposal that we provided um isn't about what freebie could do for Marada. It's a continuation

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of what we've already built together. And over the last seven years, the program has grown into one of the highest performing microtransit services in the state of Florida. And that's something that you should take pride in um and be very proud of because before this, there was no public transportation. And that and again, that

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doesn't happen by accident. It happens because of the service is built specifically for this community and has been continuously refined based on real world experience here. Um just as important, the village doesn't hear complaints on the service and vice versa. I mean, it's hearing so much

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praise uh about this from your residents. And again, that's not by chance. That's because of our local drivers here. I mean, they go above and beyond every single day. Uh they're not just drivers. They are part of this community. Uh they know the residents, they understand the visitors, and they

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take real pride in delivering a level of service that reflects what Island Bara stands for. Um, and because we've been here, we've built the data, the operational discipline, and the local team needed to continuously improve the service. And this has translated into a better experience year after year here.

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Um, so again, we're not coming in to learn the market. We already know this market. Uh, we're not introducing risk, we're providing continuity and we're not proposing a new system. We're optimizing one that's already working at a very, very high level here today. So at the end of the day, the village benefits

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from a partner that's already embedded, already performing, and already trusted by this community. Uh from the residents, local businesses to the seniors who rely on this service every single day here. Uh so when you look at this proposal, again, it's not just about cost. Again, we're not making money on this service really. It's about

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certainty. It's about that continuity, and it's about building on a foundation that's already proven itself over time. And we're excited to continue to build this uh with the village here. So getting into the proposal, just going through the different sections here when it comes to our company overview. Uh we

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were founded in 2012. We've been doing this for over 14 years. Uh we're headquartered here, you know, right here in South Florida in Miami. And we are one of the nation's premier uh operators of turnkey on demand microtransit. Um operating, you know, a fleet of over 300 electric vehicles. We move over 2 and

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a.5 million passengers annually. We operate for over 55 different communities uh with a 600 uh you know person team that really focuses on high level and execution pria 7 plus years that's a long time and in this community

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of 7,000 residents we've moved over 285,000 residents or people u which is extremely extremely uh big uh high level of service you know under 18minute average wait times uh our drivers uh the the

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users satisfaction 4.92 out of five. That's truly amazing. And you know, we're 100% committed partner. We really, really love this place here. From the qualification standpoint, you know, we're a fully integrated operator. We do everything from A to Z. Uh we

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manage our drivers, our fleet, our dispatch, our tech, our training, marketing, reporting. We do not outsource this to anybody else, which means we're 100% accountable for every piece of the operation and everything that happens on a day-by-day basis. Um, the technology is proprietary to ours.

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We've built this over 14 years. It is one of the leading technology stacks across the entire transportation industry. And again, you can't replicate of 7 years of operating here in Isle. It's such a unique place. Um, and again, we have an established rider base, uh,

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embedded workforce, and a program that's already optimized for this community because we continue to optimize year after year with all the data that we're having. Uh, from a unique qualification standpoint, something that's very unique about our platform is that it goes way beyond than just transportation. We've

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really focused on economic impact. We focus on the local businesses and it essentially doubles as a localized community guide um that's really meant to drive so much more value for this community outside of moving somebody from point A to point B. Uh we customize our tech year after year. We don't

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charge you guys for that. We build out features functionalities and again being one of the largest providers here in the state of Florida provides many benefits to the community here. We have extra resources. We can bring extra people, extra vehicles. Um again it's how do we continue to operate the highest level

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possible. So getting into the operational plan um you know we stuck to what the RFP asked for and that's important because this is an F DOT funded service and the grant that was written for this specific service had this criteria here operating

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7 days a week 7 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. three vehicles. Um something new uh potentially going forward is that $2 fair. Um, but something that's also really important is that we always have between one or two spare vehicles here. And that's not because vehicles go down.

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That's because we're operating a 17 mile stretch and electric vehicles can't operate all day long. So, our drivers are able to come in, switch out vehicles, put a one on the charger, jump right in another car, and be able to continue to provide that same service there. Um, I have talked with staff

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because we have an optimized schedule that when the if this grant ever ends, and hopefully it doesn't, we know how to be able to reduce hours to maximize the amount of vehicles on the road during that time, which is going to reduce the cost to this village here. And from a staffing and a support structure, I

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mean, we've built really a machine down here in Island Barata. From our local team leaders, our drivers, our performance manager that is really dedicated to the day-to-day operations here, supported by our central workforce, who's that eye in the sky, that NASA style type of setup there in

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the my Miami office and customer service. Those are all things that we really focus on on a day-by-day basis. And again, maintenance team, HR team, they're all here local. So the future right when that grant ever ends or you want to look to kind of move

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into a different type of service or optimize the service we are always advancing the program through forward thinking uh you know intelligent service optimization there. So we we have this optimization tool that's really able to build out a schedule that shows you how many vehicles you need at all hours of

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the day which would reduce the amount of hours that these vehicles need to operate here which ultimately it's going to lower the cost for this community when that grant ends. Now, right now, obviously, the grant was written specifically for a certain amount of hours. So, we're going to follow that so that you guys get the benefit of that

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grant. Um, we also submitted within our proposal to upgrade the fleet to the ID buzz, which I would probably recommend to hold off because I believe the next grant that was submitted uh for FDOT to be able to change the service to get another 3 years, is moving to this new

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ID buzz uh vehicle there. So again, don't want to lose the grant, but uh you still have the option to upgrade this fleet if that's something that you guys wanted to do. Also here, you know, again, um chatter about fixed route service, circulators, etc. And we have tons of operating experience doing that.

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We provide many communities both a microransit service and a fixed route service. So if that time ever comes down the line, obviously we're happy to be able to put together a full m multimodal system. And we have partnerships with uh exclusive partnership with a company called Beep who is one of the leading

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experts in autonomous mobility here in the in the state of Florida. And if this uh the village ever wanted to go through an autonomous route, uh we are your your team for that vehicles. Again, today we operate the Teslas. We also have a Toyota Sienna for

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wheelchair accessibility. uh future fleet could be the ID buzz or if the village wanted to move towards that uh immediately, we're more than happy to do that at no cost. Um and then we also have a large electric uh van here and again we have spare vehicles and that's to make sure that the service is always operating at the highest level and we're

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covering the max amount of hours. uh from a performance and reporting standpoint, you know, we do provide obviously monthly reports, but since 2022, the village has has had access to a data dashboard that provides real-time statistics, pull your own reporting,

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heat maps, etc. And recently, we just did a massive update to that platform itself. And it's now uh really uh you know providing much more intelligence, deeper analytics than ever before. Um the village right now can see where all the vehicles are at live. They're able to track real-time KPIs, ridership,

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weight times, all the things that you would want to know, heat maps for any date range. You also get access to all the raw data for every single ride that is coming in there. And it's fully transparent. And then you can pull these great reports right from that dashboard that you see on the screen there um for any date range that you know you choose

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or want to see. Um but it's a really really important tool. Um, again it really kind of helps us continue to optimize this service and for the village to be able to obviously monitor everything in real time. Technology again full proprietary build

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inhouse. Uh, it's really our core differentiator than any other transit provider out there in the market. Um, you have the basic features on how to request a ride. Um, fair transparency. You know, again, you're able to see what you're paying before you're actually able to request that ride. uh we can

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implement any type of fair structure that the village wants. Uh we've have you know some very creative fair structures out there discounts for different uh you know classes of people etc. There you get the live ride tracking the after the ride rating to make sure we are collecting that feedback. Um and then again our platform

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goes even beyond that from our AI routing engine. Uh we have a dispatch center for people that don't uh you know have access to a smartphone, don't feel comfortable. It's Florida based. It's in Miami. Uh we white label our app here. So when you open it up, you get a fully branded Marada experience which acts as

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this kind of localized community guy where every local business gets free advertising. They can promote their business, offer deals and discounts and again it's all about how do we drive local commerce in this community outside of the transportation piece. This is obviously what the interface

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looks like and as you see very Marada branded. You have the carousels on the homepage there that can change to promote different events. Uh they can uh you know do surveying from there. Um it's really everything and it's all in one easy to use app. We have a destination section which is a c

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categorization of all the businesses here, restaurants, bars, all the arts, the entertainment, um points of interest. They all get free profiles. They're all able to offer deals and discounts and they take advantage of that. Um and again, that's what we focus on. We focus on the local businesses

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because those are the ones that are really driving this community forward. Free inapp listings, deals and discounts and what we ask from them is all all we ask is for them to promote the service. We don't ask for any money. We ask for them just to promote the service through their marketing channels which has

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helped build the ridership here um over the last seven years. And then also for the village pushing out events, public service announcements, everything is able to do through this one easy to use app. Trading Post. You can go there, get 10% off any beer that you want. And you'll see you open the app and there's

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a lot of great deals and discounts uh available to the uh entire public here. Go back from a service and driver standpoint. You know, again, they understand we need to operate the highest level possible. 98% of our time, our drivers are getting perfect

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five-star ratings. I mean, that's incredible. Um, and they really are not just operators, they're community ambassadors. They carry the knowledge of that local tour guide and the hospitality of that concier on wheels there. They go through extensive training, you know, from a community BA ambassador standpoint, what it means to

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operate a public transit system. They always get continued education and then our our drivers have the ability to continue to work themselves up the ladder through team leader positions, management positions, and then to get thirdparty certifications, uh through Qstraint, uh the Red Cross, etc. there.

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And then you're supported by an entire local administrative team here. Um it's headed by myself and I don't manage many programs. This program is so important to me that I am the one that is always here obviously presenting to you guys working with staff including my uh team

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members as well who Justin who is the day-to-day performance manager Brian and Jared works with Alyssa on all the compliance all the FDOT reporting um you know you have Scott on the marketing side Jamie on the Q&A side in the technology side and Kat on the HR side. So you guys have a real dedicated team

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here that again has worked very hard over these last seven years to provide a high level of service. Marketing again this this program market itself but you know we look at from these last seven years a community centered data driven and it's designed

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to keep both residents and visitors engaged. U again one of the biggest ways we market the service is through our local businesses who are promoting the service as well. We have our team that comes out here monthly, meets with businesses. We create co-brand and marketing material. We buy ads in many of the mag local magazines. We do

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digital social media campaigns. And it's all optimized through the data that we're getting through all those marketing channels. Cost, one of the most important things to this village. Again, no startup cost. We're already here. And we came in lower than what you guys are paying today.

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providing a max value that the the you know the village would pay of $530,000 and that provides $60,000 of guaranteed advertising revenue. So we took that off the top and again with the fair implementation there's some risk that we might lose ridership. I don't believe we

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will. There are some risk and we're going to take on that risk because we are a community partner and we are guaranteeing the first $75,000 of that fair revenue. Um, and any dollar generated on top, you guys keep 100% of that. But that's our commitment to you

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guys. We understand how important cost is here and we we worked really hard on this proposal to make it as low as possible. And again, guaranteeing the advertising and the fair revenue, which brought it down to $530,000. Um, $180,000 less than the other

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proposal there. So, kind of, you know, when it comes to launch timeline, we're here, right? Uh there's zero startup time to uh to uh to launch the program. We're already fully deployed. We're staffed operational. And you know, again, I know what it takes to launch a program. And if anybody tells you it's

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going to take less than 60 to 90 days to launch a new program, they're cutting corners. And it's there there's no way to do it between the hiring of drivers, which again, the workforce down here very very unique. And you need to make sure you understand how to hire in the Florida Keys, building out the charging

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infrastructure, all the permitting. It's a long process. We do this for a living. Um, but again, we're already here. We're already committed and there's really no startup time required for this grant that's going to start here in July. So, just to sum it up again, we're much more

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than a vendor. We are a community partner. We've shown that commitment. Um, the relationship we've had is not transactional. It's long-standing. It's tested and it's really deeply rooted in this community here. Um, the proposal, it's not a promise of what we could do. It's a continuation of what we're going

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to continue to do successfully for, you know, years to come here. So, proven, trusting, and ready to continue to operate this again at a very high level. So, happy to answer any questions after the next proposer uh goes here. But thank you. >> Thank you, Jason. And now we'll hear

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from Circuit Transit. Bear with me here. Um, >> seriously, >> this protection Looks like he's option I want to show you Okay. While we're waiting, I thought I'd give

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you a little more information while they're getting the presentation. Uh on April 27th uh we did have the evaluation committee meeting. Uh we have a procurement and capital assets administrator Stephanie Peele. So, anybody that had questions got in touch with Stephanie and they that we had

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evaluation committee members present which I appointed the founders park director Maria next door plan director Jennifer our environmental resources manager Peter Fresza who's actually here building official Sheila finance director Hattie and then I also attended along with Alyssa Panza who was still

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here I guess Alyssa's here and so we were at the evaluation committee meeting so if you have any questions about the meeting itself uh we have some people here that can answer those also. You let me know when you're ready, Jason. I'm just I'm stalling for you. So, >> and so I have a copy of the minutes of the meeting with the score sheets in

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case anybody has any questions about that. I'll pass it around. Then I also brought from uh when the county did their uh rankings in 2024 so you can kind of see comparison of what happened. So, I'll pass around here. >> Ready? You ready to go?

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>> I'm good. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Uh thank you for hosting this workshop. I'm Jason Baggley, a partner at Circuit. Uh, while a written RFP response is important, the opportunity to engage directly, answer any questions, and provide clarification is incredibly valuable in helping ensure

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you have the information needed to make the best decision. For some brief context, uh, this is not our first attempt to bring our service to Isa Marada. We did respond to the RFP issued, I believe, in late 2023, and at that time were recommended for approval.

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Um, however, shortly before the village council meeting in this building, um, before that meeting was scheduled to start, about 30 minutes before, we were notified that all bids were being rejected and the RFP was withdrawn. It was not reissued at that time and there

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was limited information provided as to why, you know, what prompted that decision. I share that simply to say we remain committed and very interested in serving Marada. While it's unfortunate that momentum was lost, uh we're here today to demonstrate what we can deliver

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moving forward. With that, I'd like to briefly recap what you've asked for in this RFP. So, looking at the RFP and what's been shared publicly, a few key goals stand out. You're looking for uh an efficient, modern, reliable, and sustainable mobility program. You want to partner

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with proven experience. You want a fleet that's right the right fit for Marada. Another critical priority is revenue generation and long-term sustainability. So while grant funding is important, we know that it's never guaranteed. So the question becomes, how do we build a

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program that has long-term sustainability? Uh and that's something that I'll touch on here shortly. And finally, you're looking for optimized local service program that reflects Alam Marada and represents the community well. Our solution includes everything you'd

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expect. 100% electric fleet, national scale with a strong local focus, state-of-the-art technology, and full turnkey operations. But candidly, every proposer is going to say that. So, the real question is, what makes us different? First, while we've been headquartered in

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South Florida since 2011, we operate nationwide. We're not just a Florida based operator. We bring insights and best practices from around the country and apply them locally. That scale allows us to consistently meet requirements, leverage centralized operations, and still maintain a strong

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local focus in each community that we serve. A quick overview of what we proposed. Our approach with every partner is to work collaborative collaboratively to design and implement a solution tailored to your specific needs. What's outlined in an RFP response rarely reflects how a

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program ultimately operates in the real world. You've defined a clear require you've defined clear requirements and a set budget which is great. And to be clear, we can meet those requirements and live within that budget. However, based on what we've learned about your current

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program and its challenges, we've also put forward a recommendation that goes a step further. The intent is not just to meet the minimum requirements, but to partner with you to fully reeval evaluate and optimize the program for long long-term success.

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The good news is that you've been an early adopter of running microtransit. You're seven years in. The key question now is how has the program evolved over that time? What improvements have been made by the current vendor? Have there been meaningful upgrades to the technology fleet and operations? And I'm

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genuinely asking you. I don't I don't have that answer, but something that you should ask yourself. Has ridership grown year-over-year? Has advertising revenue grown year-over-year? A big one is have private funding partners been introduced? That's something that we do very well is we get luxury resorts and

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large employers to help contribute to this program, not just for an ad in the app, but to actually fund it and add some some capital and an investment into the program that they're benefiting from to take some of the pressure off of the village.

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So, we're um you know, if this is fully reliant on an FD grant, funding, and a village match, that is tough to say what that looks like years down the road. We're a huge supporter of that grant. We use utilize it in several of our markets and while there's a good chance it can

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be renewed, it's not guaranteed, and we know what happened with Monroe County, who cut their funding. Meanwhile, the industry has advanced significantly. Our goal today is to show you what a best-in-class solution looks like. What we're offering isn't simply a vendor change. It's an opportunity to

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elevate the program. That means greater operational transparency, stronger fiscal sustainability, and deeper community integration. We bring 15 years of nationwide all-electric experience and aim to be a partner that evolves with you. We're constantly refining our

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technology, operations, and service model based on real world performance, rider feedback, and industry advancements to ensure our partners are always benefiting from the most current and effective solutions. Key metric for any microtransit program is wait time. How long riders are

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waiting to be picked up, just as important is what's being done to actively address longer wait times during peak periods. A strong partner should be proactive, identifying patterns like consistent afternoon delays and coming forward with datadriven recommendations to improve

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performance. Across our network, we target average weight times of 15 minutes or less. We've invested heavily in our own technology, including advanced pooling algorithms that group riders traveling in the same direction to maximize vehicle utilization and reduce delays.

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We also leverage data to position vehicles where demand is expected, allowing us to anticipate requests and significantly reduce response times. Our proposed fleet included two Volkswagen ID Buzz vehicles and one all-electric Ford Etransit ADA van which

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accommodates 7 to nine passengers plus a wheelchair position. In terms of branding, that's entirely your decision. Our approach is to highlight Isa Marada, not ourselves. We prioritize community focused branding ensuring the vehicles prominently refle reflect the village and the service delivering value back to

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you rather than promoting our name. On the technology side, we provide full operational visibility. One of the most common concerns we hear from residents over and over is that I keep seeing those cars parked at the charging stations on the side of the road. That's never a good look and more importantly,

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it creates uncertainty. With our platform, that will never be an issue. you have real-time visibility um into the entire operation where vehicles are, where drivers or which drivers are active, and even current rider demanding cues. While we don't expect you to manage the day-to-day

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operation, we provide that transparency so you never have to wonder what's going on. Our pricing model is also different. Some vendors present a low fixed monthly cost based on assumed hours and fleet size, regardless of what is actually delivered. In many cases, that means

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you're paying for service that you may not have actually been provided. We take a different approach. We build based on actual delivered driver hours. If a shift isn't fulfilled or a driver calls out and isn't replaced, you're not charged for that time. It's a more transparent and accountable model that

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ensures you're only paying for the service that you receive. This is a major differentiator for us. We've invested heavily in our tech and continuously upgrade our platform. But it's not just about the data we provide. It's about the insights behind that data, the recommendations we bring

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forward, and most importantly, the action taken to continuously improve the service. Here's an actual graph from the data you provided in the RFP. So again, having this data is good, but taking action is what matters. This chart screams to us,

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adjust service up in the evening, and service can be trimmed at the start and end of the service hours. There are months of data in this RFP and this trend is repeated over and over and over signifying nothing's being done to address the gaps. So if you can see the the top of that chart is the uh requests

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and the green is the completed ride. So everything in between is a missed ride. And if it happens once or or frequently you can understand it. But if you see it for six months in a row and there's nothing being done to adjust it then that's not really being uh monitored

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well. So, part of our proposal, we gave a couple different options. We gave a budget option and a full-on option that was actually a little bit more of an investment. Again, we can live within the boundaries and the um the budget

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allocated. But what this tells me is that, you know, looking at the data should dictate how to meet the demand. And that means you should probably have four cars. And maybe you can have two running in the morning and two in the late evening, three most of the time, but you should be scaling up to four

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between uh about 400 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. almost every day to meet the true demand. And of course, fairs will balance some of this out. But again, you're seeing that over and over. That's something that should be considered in the actual RFP. And at Circuit, every partner is

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supported by a dedicated partnership manager who works with you to review this data on a regular basis in addition to the real-time access. We hold monthly performance reviews to discuss trends, identify opportunities, and implement changes to optimize the service. When done right, these programs are not

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static. They're continuously evolving based on data and proactive management. And the accountability extends to on the ground with the team. So, safety and real-time operations. We utilize live ops and AI powered telematics across our

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entire fleet. Every vehicle is equipped with samsara telematics and dual facing uh dash cameras, giving us full full visibility into driver behavior and operations in real time. This allows us to monitor active li uh activity live

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when needed. But more importantly, we maintain a strong safety culture reflected in our national safety score from SAM SAR of 98 out of 100. Our operations dashboard provides automated alerts for events like harsh braking or distracted driving. When those events

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occur, we re they're reviewed and followed up with targeted coaching. We track performance at the individual driver level and if behaviors persist without improvement, we take appropriate action. This ensures a consistent, safe, and accountable operation across the board.

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And I want to discuss the long-term sustainability of the program. I touched on it before, but again, the public grants have been reliable thus far thus far, but they're not guaranteed. It's critical to diversify your funding sources so we can help secure the program's future through the following

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strategies. grant support. We per I personally submitted four grants for customers and potential customers over the last two months. We're constantly looking for state, federal, and local grants to uh to go after, and we always help in those applications where we can.

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Uh dedicated services is a big one that hasn't been discussed. So, in our public service markets, we go meet with the hotels, the large business owners, the restaurants, and offer them a couple different options. They can do a dedicated car that's branded that is in

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part of the public service. They could do a dedicated amenity a amenity just for their guests that then takes pressure off the public system. They can do a voucher program where they pay for a discounted B uh block of of trips for their guests.

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There's so many options within the, you know, the layers that we can present this. There can be discounts with their ride receipt. So, there's many different ways we can do that, promo codes, but all of it is to build up additional funding support to keep this program going.

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I think a good example is Chica Lodge to go to them and and ask them for a dedicated service, brand a car, pay for their guest, or that could potentially down the road be a higher cost than a $2 rider. you have someone staying at a luxury hotel, I think uh it's

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appropriate to charge a little bit more, especially considering what the uh the Uber trip rates are in the area. And that's why we presented in our RFP response this alter alternative fair model. So, we recommended this tiered pricing. Again, while residents should

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maintain the lowcost access, hotels can subsidize guest rides through vouchers, promo codes, bulk ride purchases, or discounts at at point of sale. the advertising revenue. We had an an aggressive uh guarantee in our response. Our head of advertising has a family

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home here in Isa Marada. She spends a ton of time here and I know that she would love to to go out and sell the ads on this program. These are all critical to ensure the program remains viable and effective. We did identify some potential funding partners, but again, this is going to be

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outreach, community engagement, and getting in front of all these businesses to present a new approach uh and ask for buyin for a program that benefits benefits the entire community. And it's natural for an incumbent to emphasize the risks of change, but in

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practice, transactions or transitions are very manageable with strong outreach. Riders who rely on the service will continue using it. We've seen this consistently over 15 plus years of implementations. We would welcome existing drivers to apply and integrate where they uh as

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long as they meet our standards. With infrastructure in place, transition complexity is low and training is straightforward. Our typical imple implementation time is 8 to 12 weeks and I think that we could accelerate that given our regional presence and infrastructure in the area.

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We operate a W2 employee model which ensures greater accountability and service consistency. We always prioritize local hiring to build a team that understands the community that they serve. Drivers go through rigorous training and we reinforce performance through ongoing coaching and incentives tied to reliability and customer

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service. As a recap, our platform offers a flexible fair-based service with multiple layers of customization. While riders see a single service area, behind the scenes, we use zones to optimize vehicle staging, routing, and coverage so vehicles are distributed efficient

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efficiently. We can support microtransit fixed routes or a smart stop model with designated pickup locations defined by the village. We do have some AV deployments going on currently in Boca Raton. Uh so we have experience with that and uh would be happy to deploy that here if that's of

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interest. We also actively pursue private funding partnerships to support future enhancements. One feature to highlight is our inapp wallet or stored funds that we just launched about two months ago. So riders can preload funds and receive a discount. So the city of Hollywood

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asked us to develop this. They wanted to um offer a discount to their transit dependent riders and their locals. So instead of a $2 transaction with a high processing fee every time, they can put $20 in a wallet. If they use that to pay for their rides, they get 25% off every

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time they use it. So there's more value there and something that um a lot of people have found without us even promoting it. So we've seen strong adoption of that. Overall, the system is highly configurable and continues to evolve with new tools and features being added regularly.

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With that, I thank you all again and happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Uh probably the best way to do this would be to have maybe both Jason's uh come up and then if you can raise your hand, I'll bring you the mic and you can either ask a question, make a comment. You can ask both of them, one

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of them, however you want to do it. It's kind of informal, but I think that's probably the best way to do it. You've heard both presentations, so you may have a specific question or you may have a generic question. And once again, just raise your hand. I'll start with Sue. She always has a question. You want

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She's our honorary kickoff person. >> Thank you. I um am a little confused about the the um what it'll cost the taxpayers of Alam Marada. Um

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Jason Spiegel said it will cost us $180,000 more than circuit but I couldn't figure out >> use that she's sorry identify

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freebie freebie will cost $180,000 less than circuit according to what you said And I couldn't I couldn't calculate that when I was listening to both of you. >> Yeah. So, you know, we guaranteed

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$60,000 in advertising, which came off the top, and $75,000 in fair revenue within their proposal. They provided estimates, but not guarantees if you look at their specific proposal. So, the the village is on the hook for the maximum amount that they're billing you,

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which is about 715,000. Um, we Sorry. Go ahead. >> So, you're assuming that they'll collect no $2 fees. >> I'm not ass. I'm just saying right off the bat. >> Well, for the 180, the difference in the 180,000 would be assuming that they have

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no income from their fee. >> That's correct. >> Yeah. >> Which is not really realistic. >> I mean, it's what the pricing is though and how it was presented. And so the $60,000 for advertising, where does that where does that what kind of advertising are you doing?

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>> It's the same that we do today. It's uh advertising on the vehicles themselves. >> Are you advertising on the vehicles? >> Yes. So, um, we have a one year left on our on

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our grant. And, um, and the RFP, I believe, is for a 2-year contract with either of you? And are you willing to do a one-year contract since we don't know whether

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we're what what the next year will bring? you guys have a termination for convenience clause. So even if it's 10 years, you can always get out of a contract. So again, if you don't get grant funding and the micro

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>> there there's a termination for convenience clause within um the agreements that we have with you guys. So if any point in time where you lost funding, the village has the ability to terminate the service without any penalty there. So even if it was a forever agreement, you still have that. No, I wasn't I was we don't want to

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terminate any agreement. We we just would like to renegotiate how how it's structured. >> Uh again, you guys have the ability to cancel the agreement, put out another RFP, restructure however you want. I

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think the benefit that you get by having a two-year agreement is that you get locked in pricing. So, as rates start to go up, labor, insurance, everything, you're not going to be subjected to that within a 2-year agreement, but you still have the benefit. If you ever wanted to terminate agreement, you're able to do

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so with no penalty. >> I have a lot of more questions, but I guess I should pass the microphone. >> Yeah, we'll we'll come back. I mean, we're here for as long as y'all want to be here. So, um, and once again, if you can direct it, don't say Jason. There's

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two Jasons. So, if a if a specific question for freebie or circuit, just identify it. And if you two Jasons can answer in the mic, we do have people that are watching online. And sometimes they can't hear it unless you speak into the microphone. So, uh, next person that wants to ask a question. Let me recognize Judy Hull who's here from the

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island chamber. Judy, do you have any questions? >> I don't. >> Okay. >> Just listening at this. >> All right. Uh, who else wants to ask a question or make a comment? >> Back to Sue. >> Wow.

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>> Okay. >> And when when you speak, identify yourself in case the people at home want to know who who's asked the question. >> Hi, my name is Anna Rodriguez. >> Just kidding. Sheila Sheila Glansancy.

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Um, I pulled this off the website and um, it I'm looking at circuits right now. I'm a little biased. Okay, I'm going to put that out there. Um, it says that you're going it it for $581,000.

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That's the recommended service is two vehicles in an ADA van out on the road 7 a.m. till 12. >> That's correct. We gave two options. So we did a lower cost option and that recommended option and that is to maximize the number of vehicle hours in

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service. Excuse me. I do think reality is somewhere in the middle there and that's why we we wanted to have this workshop and discuss this because I think that's important of to get to that point and in the negotiation quite frankly is when everything would get settled and

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discussed. I think it's very prescriptive the way that it is right now. And I know the FDOT grant mandates that it's 7 am to midnight, three cars on the road at all hours, but I imagine for freebie staff, you're probably not seeing that much demand that you need three cars every

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day, 17 hours a day for based on what's showing on the data at the very least. But I'm sure there's times where you need four cars on the road. And I think that you also have to factor in the fairs that are going to come in and that will temper demand a little bit. We've done that all over the place. We went

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from free to a small $2 fair and that does change rider behavior. So to answer your question, yes, we gave a range and that was to give every hour on the road as you asked for. We would recommend that there's four cars and you scale up at at those peak times and you

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can scale down on the slower times. >> Okay. >> Thanks. How about you? >> Hello. >> Good. >> My name is Anna. I am one of the AM drivers. I'm here again. You know, every year I'm here. >> The morning shift is totally different

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from the night shift. Okay. The morning shift is a very busy shift cuz you have from 7 as soon as we turn off our queue. >> Yeah. >> It's like that. Okay. We have from 7

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to 10 and then from let's say from 10:30 to 1:00 it's non-stop. Non-stop. Non-stop. Okay. >> There's no way that we can >> that a good service will be given with only

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two cars on the road. There's no way. And I can tell you seven days a week. >> No. No. It's not. It's not going to work. He says seven days a week. Seven days a week. It's impossible because Isa Marada is super busy. We have a lot of

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regulars especially that go to work every single day. Go to doctor's appointment. I pick up a lot of the elderlys. ADA rides. I do all that, you know, on a daily basis. And I know for a fact that is a very very busy shift. >> Yeah, I don't doubt it. I'm just looking

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at what the data showed on the RFP. What about the late evening from 9 or 10:00 p.m. to midnight? >> That she would need to answer. >> So, when I first started driving 5 years ago, >> Mhm. >> it wasn't as busy. Now, we are non-stop.

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We are non-stop. We get a 30 minute break >> and we don't stop all night. I mean, I have not been getting home till after 12:30. Yep. So that I mean it is a good problem to have.

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>> Gotten busier and busier. >> Yeah, that's that's a good problem to have. We run these services all over >> all over the state and we see these demand patterns. And I think there's there's some efficiency in there. And I think that's also a product of a reason why the fair should probably be a little

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bit higher at certain times of the day. You know, if it's a choice rider that's going to a bar that is impacting service for everybody else, then that could be a higher cost. And again, why we need more funding to do this right with more cars. And that's where the business community

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comes in. >> Thanks. >> Sure. >> Let's see if anybody else has. >> Jamie, you got anything? >> Ron, can I >> I know it's not baseball field related, but >> can I can I add something to that? >> Sure. We'll just use that.

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>> So, he's not incorrect. There's points of the day you need more than three cars. Unfortunately, though, the budget doesn't allow for more than three cars. So, we have to maximize what we do there. And to the person going to the bar, they're just as important to the

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person that's going to the doctor's appointment because we do not want that person in a car driving themselves. The last thing we want is a drunk driver. And down here in the Keys, there's a lot of drinking. Um and um it's important to make sure we treat everybody equal. Um

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you know, fair structure can be very dynamic if you'd like, but it's public transportation. Uh we want to make sure it's an equitable service and that we're providing fairness to everybody and especially the majority of our riders are residents here, as our drivers will tell you. Um it's it's it's a very

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important service for them. But yes, more vehicles are needed during those peak hours. It's just not doable. No, no. >> So, I knew Jamie couldn't resist. >> Because I I'm just learning about this. I I don't use the service. So, I will

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say that. Um, when you put out the RFP, did someone go and look like I'm listening to these ladies and they're saying they have regulars that are going to doctor's appointments during the day, certain times. Did someone look at those numbers and actually break it down and

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say, "Well, how many regulars were on there so that you know that these certain people are going to be going to these appointments at this time?" I mean, was that how that was broken down or was it just presented out there to say here's the numbers, if that makes

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any sense? >> It it's how it was written for the FDOT grant. So, for the grant that the village has here that pays for 50% of the cost, >> it's requiring a certain amount of vehicles out during certain hours of the day. Um, so that's how the RFP was written to align with the grant there.

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Um, >> but to align with the usage, so like these ladies are saying, and then I'm looking at the numbers that the gentleman from CIRC was was putting where it was there was a lapse time. look like uh lost rides because we

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didn't have enough on the road. I guess I'm just trying to to make sure that we have what our community actually I know FDOT and they've got all of their everything you had to do for the grant, but I just want to make sure that someone has actually looked over and

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said we know we need this many at this time. And also, we are a seasonal community in many cases. So, I'm presuming that that was taken into account. And also when we're talking about all these numbers, there's not as many people in town at certain times of

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the year. I don't know if that affects anything, but >> yeah, I would say listen, during those times where you see that gap, the maximum amount of vehicles are on the road. It's just with three vehicles, you can't you can only max out to X. The way to obviously accomplish that demand is adding more vehicles, but that adds more

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cost to the village here, which again, we're trying to reduce cost. So, it's, you know, it's kind of a catch 22. It's a balance there. Um but yes, we have regulars every day and again we prioritize as much as we as possibly we can. Ridership's extremely high,

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continues to grow. Seasonality, I mean I would tell you in the beginning there was a lot more seasonality today because the majority of our riders are locals. It does not drop off that much. >> Um >> thank you very much both of you for doing a presentation.

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>> That that makes sense. I mean, we see years ago, I I'll agree, there were many of our markets like Pompo that there would be those summer dips, but it's been pretty consistent year round in in many of these markets. >> Judy,

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>> don't worry, it's not a question. Hi, I'm Judy from the Island Chamber and I just want to make a comment because you refer to our big resorts that they should be carrying part of the load and I just want you to know they have their own vehicles. So, they have bought these

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same vehicles and they're shuttling to restaurants every night and and at lunch. So, that money stream probably isn't there. Yeah, I'm aware that a lot of the hotels do have a house car, but even within that, we've been able to go

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in and either take on the house car and add it as part of this another layer of this service or to get contributions to this program because they do see the value in it. Aside from that, you have the hospital. There's other large employers and restaurants that I think

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are ripe to go and and uh you know, ask for some funding and to contribute to the program. >> Okay, that was the first round. Anybody else have any more first round questions before we get back to Sue? Okay, Sue.

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>> So, can I get back to advertising? >> Your your quote for circuit for >> we had a range on our range. Yeah. I think the high end was 84,000 in advertising and 60,000

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for um for the fair revenue. >> It was 48,000. >> 48 for advertising. >> And was that deducted from the high like theirs was? >> Yes. Yep, it was.

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And so the difference between your median and their quote was about the same. Yeah, we had I'm just taking a look here. On our budgeted service, we had 84,000 in fair revenue. On the

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recommended, we had 96,000 in fair revenue and 48,000 in ad revenue on both scenarios. So, you have experience here um with freebie and yet your your

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um revenue from the u $2 fees was less than what he's projecting. >> I would >> Is he going to lose money? >> I would tell you this. Just reread the proposal. The fairs that they provided were estimates, not guarantees. >> I understand that.

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>> So, we guaranteed the first 75,000. So, if we don't generate 75,000, you're still getting that money off. Anything anything that's generated on top of that is coming back to you guys, >> right? >> So, it's not >> I understand that. >> Okay. So, then what's the question? >> Well, I it just seems strange to me that

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you projected so low. >> It wasn't a projection. It was a guarantee. >> Well, >> that's different. It's totally different. >> So, um, your advertising is for circuit is primarily on the vehicle.

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>> Yes. Right. We do inapp ads as well, but the bulk of the revenue would be on the vehicles. >> And yours? Uh it's it's the the advertising guarantee is on the vehicle similar to him and we do free advertising in the app for all local businesses.

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>> And so um you don't what about your expenses for advertising? >> What do you mean by expenses? Um, I am a resident and um, and I would have expected when

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you came to town that you would have advertised for customers. >> That's a different type of advertising. So, what we're talking about is somebody >> I understand that it's different. I ask you, what is your advertising expense? Oh, I I don't have that off the top of

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my head, but again, I would say that based on the ridership that you see and the growth year-over-year, we're doing a pretty good job on advertising. Now, you're never you're never going to hit 100% of the community, but I think the majority of this community now knows about the service.

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>> So, so these rider these drivers um are telling us about how busy they are. Mhm. >> Um, how many drivers are there? Cuz every time I go past the charging station, there's almost always at least

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two vehicles there. >> We have two spare vehicles there. So, you will always see two vehicles there. >> So, I only ever see four. >> Uh, there's more than four >> and you know, in the middle of the night. I mean, >> I would say to come tonight. >> So, you only have How many vehicles do

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you have here? >> Five. >> Five. Yes. >> I've never seen five. >> Well, maybe you're not seeing the big van that's there as well, but there's five vehicles there. We come out of our own pocket to keep additional vehicles here at our expense to help with the operations.

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>> So, when I see four vehicles there at the charging station, there are two that are out on the road. >> That would be one on the road if you saw four there. And there could be a possibility that a driver's coming in, they're doing a swap of a vehicle.

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There's there's a lot of different reasons why you potentially might see four vehicles, but very rare would you see four unless it's after hours. >> So, how many vehicles will you have here? >> We proposed three, but typically we'll put a spare or uh a lot of times our ADA

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will be like a bonus vehicle that would be on standby. Um that the Ford Etransit van might not get through an entire day of service. So a lot of times we'll bonus that uh >> so both circuit and freebie will have

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one vehicle for ADA compliance. >> We have two but minimum of one. >> Oh but one of your spares is also ADA. >> Okay. I have been impressed with the creative

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ideas that have been suggested from both of you. But my question that come pops in my brain when I think of how creative you are now standing in

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front of us at a workshop, but you've been here seven years. Why haven't you already implemented all those creative ideas? I'm not sure what creative ideas you're referring to, but I will tell you from year 1 to year 7, this service has

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completely transformed in so many different ways from a service standpoint, a technology standpoint, a creativity standpoint. But if there's something specific that I mentioned tonight that you would like to see implemented, be happy to consider it. But again, we have to stay within the

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FDOT guidelines for the next year. After that, let's go crazy. No, >> I mean was there something specific on the ideas that you liked? >> Um, well, I like the idea of the wallet, but I guess that was circuit. >> We have We already have a wallet. It's

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not new. >> So, so you people can put money in. >> We have a whole tokenized system. Yes. so that resorts can buy tokens for their passengers, but that's not what the RFP asked for. So, we submitted what the RFP asked for. If it would have asked for,

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hey, give us creative ideas on X, Y, or Z, you would have saw a different response there. >> Don't you think that's sad that they didn't ask for creative ideas? >> No, because you would have lost your grant. So, do you expect that um freebie could

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charge more than $2? >> It's Listen, that's a policy decision. Um >> could we could charge we could charge whatever. We're in a We're in a county right now where you can pay as little as $3.50 up to $13.50 and everything in

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between. Discounts for low-income individuals, people with disabilities, uh seniors. I mean, we can create the most custom fair structure you would ever want to see, but it doesn't align with the current grant, and FOT doesn't allow you to do that.

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>> Well, but I will tell you that I disagree with that because I think that the grant was written by the V. I mean, the request was by the village. They put in the requirements, not not FDOT.

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>> So, >> Right. But correct. But FDOT accepted it. And and with FOT grants, you can't say, "Hey, residents are free, tourists are are have to pay." You have to treat

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everybody equally within an FOT framework there. It's public transportation and there's rules around it. Um, >> so you're saying that that um we cannot as long as we have an FDOT grant, we

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can't give the locals free transportation or cheaper transportation than we give the tourists. >> I would tell you to have your attorney to look into it. I do not believe you're able to do that. There's certain classes where you can provide discounted seniors

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ADA accessibility. we could give scholarships >> to to locals so that they >> and I know the graduating class last night I heard got a lot of scholarships over $4 million of scholarships >> right that's not exactly what I meant

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but you can give discounts to people someone could pay for that is there a way to do that within >> yeah if I can jump in here a couple things so >> with the foc grant we went through a bid and and on a a contract in northwest

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Fort Lauderdale. And the way that that was written, it was for an FD grant. And they presented the map and we took a look at it. I live in the area and the map didn't include the train station and it didn't include Walmart. So, it was basically just all neighborhoods. So, we

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asked them, "What's the intention of this service? Where are we taking people to and from?" the city was able to go back to FDOT and get the map modified and include the train station and include Walmart, which for two years have been our number one and number two

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pickup and drop off destination. So he Jason may be right that there's no way around it. But I think there's some creative ways of doing that where you can publish a promo code to everybody, but it might be seen where residents are going to look and a visitor may not take

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the time to dig that up. So, I would, you know, tell you there there's ways of trying to structure these fairs a little bit different. And if it has to be $2 for the first year and you ask for it on a renewal, then so be it. And I have another question and then

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I'll be quiet. the charts that you showed that have the top and then the the actual rides versus the calls. Why why that difference and why haven't

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you addressed it? >> We can only do what we do with three vehicles, right? So, at let's call it 5:00 p.m. when it's peak hour, right? And you have 30 requests come in and you have three vehicles, you can only serve so many people. So those people that

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request towards the 20, 21, up to 30, they're going to see a much longer wait time than the people that requested before and they might cancel the ride. The only way to be able to accomplish that is more capacity, which means more vehicles, which means more cost to you guys, which is something you're trying

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to mitigate. I have a question on that. Is there what is the percentage of pulled rides is another way to address that? So you're putting riders together going in the same direction. Is there pooling on right now and like percentage of rides that >> that addresses? I'm just curious.

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>> Yes, the majority of the rides are pulled. Um, obviously the algorithms we can dictate how much are pulled, less pulled, and there's give and takes on both, right? You can put people in the cars. Nobody wants to sit in a car for an hour picking people up along the way. So, there's a there's a happy medium

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there. And we're in that happy medium right now. And we're maximizing on the pooling and the ridership today. >> So, I have another question. Is it okay the difference between the vehicle that you're using now versus

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the Buzz? >> Do you have them in other locations? Buzzes in other locations? >> We probably have the largest fleet of buzzes across the country. We have one service area that has 50 of them. >> And you have buzzes in other locations.

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Do you find that for the elderly population that a buzz is more popular than the sedan? No. And I'll tell you why. Because it's a much bigger step up than the sedan. Where the sedan you can actually sit down. This you actually have to stand up to get in there. >> I'd rather as an elderly person, I'd

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rather stand up than sit down. >> Meaning trying to get up into there. But yes, we've started to put runners on those vehicles so that it's easier for people to get up and down into there, but it's harder. >> And and if if the village decided they

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prefer buzzes, then we would get buzzes. Okay. Uh, we have a couple drivers here. I know we have a couple of, uh, consumers. Did y'all want to add anything? I know you you you've taken you've used the right share. Anything you want to add or ask >> customers have a mic, but

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>> No, no, I get I'm saying do you want to you mic? Okay. >> Let me get the mic then. I was given the opportunity if you're going to take advantage of it then mic. >> I don't want to put you on the spot, but since you are a customer, >> you know. Hi, my name is Alan Peterson. I live over in Tava, mile marker 90. Um,

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I frequently use the the freebie. I think it's great for the community. I personally I work from home, so I don't use it to, you know, um, go to work or anything like that, but I I we use it a lot. We use it when we have visitors uh, that come to town. Uh, sometimes we have

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two other couples, so we might have six riders. we can get the van. They'll bring the van down. We'll all go down to Alam Marada, you know, and we can bar hop along the way. We don't have to worry about drinking and driving and that kind of thing. So, I I my thought is it's one of the benefits of this

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community that as a taxpayer here, I don't use a lot of the services. I don't use Founders Park very much. I've been here a couple times. I don't use the boat lift, things like that. But I do uh use Freeb a lot. So, um, those are my comments. I don't

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really I'm here to listen though. I think the questions, you know, that were asked by this group answered a lot of my questions. So, it's been really helpful. >> I'll chime in just real quick, Ancraft. Um, and I think that for us, it's just

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making sure that there is a system. You know, I didn't even know that we were going to be listening to two proposals this evening of two different um, options. So, our we're here more in support of maintaining a system. Um, you know, up to you guys financially and on

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all those other decisions, but we're here to just support that. It we like it. We want to keep it. We we think that it's a great um addition to bringing our business further away from our home uh for restaurants and bars and the social aspect of it. Um, so that's our main use

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of it, but we really would like to maintain that system, whether it be either one of these um great options. We'll take it. Okay, it's me again. Okay, so I to answer your question,

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ma'am, um I go a lot to 48 High Point Road, the nursing center. Okay, they love us over there. They love freebie over there. Okay. Yesterday I did three rides. Okay. And so whenever they need

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the bus, they let us know when they call that they need the bus. Most of the time it's on the Tesla because to them it's more comfortable to sit down, you know, even though the bus have rails and they can hold on it, but just a step like he

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was saying, that's really, you know, they don't like it. They like to be comfortable. And as far as the other writers that I pick up, every time that they're like dayto day, oh, what's going to happen to freebie? Oh, no. You guys

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cannot leave. You guys are our family. You know, we love you guys. You guys been here forever. This is what I we get every day. You know, I'm like, you know, I'm sure she knows, you know, cuz they tell her too, you know, they love us

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here. like Alam Marada, everybody knows Sheila, everybody knows me in the morning. She's a night girl, you know. So, um, but everybody loves all of the employees of Freebie, we have become a

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family. Okay. So, for us to lose freebie, for me especially cuz freebie is my job. I wake up early morning and I come to work. I'm a happy employee. Okay? I love what I do.

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But for me to lose my job, that was just because I pay bills. I every day I, you know, I buy groceries with what I make. I buy groceries with what I make. I pay my car to come to work, pay my rent.

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So, and this is like for a lot of us as mothers and, you know, employees and so is the writers. So they just want me to speak for them to let you guys know that they love freebie that they do not want

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us out of here because they will be sad and that's it. I won't not speak anymore. I promise. >> Thank you. >> And to be clear, the discussion tonight is whether to have ride share. That that decision was made by the village council. We had a a packed house one

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night and they I think it was unanimously agreed that we're going to continue our grant with DOT, continue ride your service. The purpose of this was to say now that the current vendor's contract was up, do we want to listen to proposals from anybody that wants to submit? I will say that we had two great

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proposals. I think you've heard tonight they are both very qualified companies. Others could have submitted. I showed you the county one. I think they had five or six people submit. We had these two. But the question tonight is not whether we're going to have rid share. The question is which company the council will ultimately decide is going to have that contract. So I don't think

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there's been any discussion or direction from the council to not do it. The only question was which of these two wonderful providers would be the one continuing the service. Just to be clear, there's no discussion about doing away with service. It's just which of these two and it's down to two. Somebody else cannot I guess if we had red we did

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the whole thing. But at this point, we had two really good proposals come back in. The council, which has the ultimate authority, will decide which one of the two they want to proceed with, and then we go from there. There's still negotiations go back and forth. So even though the RFP may not have included things that Sue or others may have

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thought they should have included, if we had that flexibility with and working with DOT, for example, I think the village, not speaking for council, would be open to making a better service. But at this point, we had to deal with the existing grant. And then once the village council decided which of the

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providers they want to move with, then we can have those ongoing discussions. But I don't want anybody listening thinking there's any discussion about doing with ride share service. It's just a question of which of these two excellent proposals the village council will accept just to be clear.

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Any other questions? Jimmy >> or discussion? >> Just a comment. I just want to first thank you so much for coming. proposals were great, great presentations. I think this is really good to have this open discussion. Um, and I would ask all of

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the council members who are here, um, that in the future when things like this come up, this should be the first thing that happens. Not just once, maybe twice because there might be people who couldn't be here with graduations and all kinds of things going on. Um, but I

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would ask the council and the village manager for transparency in the future and to involve the community members a little bit more because again think there's good conversation going on. Um, that we do this more often and that we do it openly so that we can get the

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public here that can give their ideas and comments. But thank you both very much. It was great. >> Thank you Jamie. And once again, this was a publicly noticed meeting. asked why we do have four of our five five council members here. Uh I I'll ask them just in case something came up in your

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mind. Do any of the council members because they can speak. It is a publicly noticed meeting. So no, they're not violating sunshine or anything. Do any of you have a comment or question? I didn't want to conclude without y'all having the opportunity to say anything that you want to. Okay.

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>> Yes, ma'am. I was just wondering. Okay. So, you know, I I'm not privy with all politics in town. Okay. But watching I watched the council meetings every month and I

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knew that freebie was sent the um bids were sent to this committee. The committee recommended to council what they thought the best bet was. It was pulled then from the agenda to have this

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>> correct. I know. So what it I don't understand the reason. I I mean I like it. I like the workshop thing. >> Okay. I'm good. >> Yes. >> Identify yourself.

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>> Oh Sharon Mahoney, Vice Mayor Al Marada. I'm the one who pulled it because we weren't given I mean you know with the committees whoever selects that's their opinion. We have the ultimate decision

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and if I'm not given both options that's not fair and it wasn't fair. We had one in her booklet and when I said something to our manager, he put it on the night before the meeting and I'm sorry, Sunday or Monday night at

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midnight, I'm not going to read something when I should have had the ability to study both proposals and that was not given to us. >> So can I ask? >> Sure. So >> people >> So when it when they form committees for

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something and they're recommending it, do you not go by what the committee says? You you look at everything. >> You want to know why? >> Yes. >> You want to say something? >> Well, I wanted to say something. May I add and then you can have your >> Sure.

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>> Please. It is only a recommendation and is and this is true in all of our proposals and anything we do from any of our committees that we have and we have lots of different committees. They're only recommendations. Sometimes a committee

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is focused on one thing and when it comes to council, I'm not saying this one or in particular, but when it comes to council, council has the entire community to take into consideration and a committee sometimes is very focused on

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a small aspect. >> Deb, that's perfect. >> Thank you. >> I'm good. Did that spark any more questions or discussion? >> No. >> Okay. Uh once again, this is being

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videoed live and I we'll have it on the website. So if if you want to go back and look at it again or if you have friends that are working that couldn't come tonight, we will post it on the website. And going forward to the vice mayor's point, in the past, our staff did not put all the proposals in the

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packet. going forward. I've agreed that at least well I'm in charge of it that we'll put all we have another proposal coming up. We have 10 uh for grant writing. I'm going to put all 10 on the website. So if you want to take time and read all 10 proposals, go for it. So once again, if you didn't get a chance to see it, I apologize for not getting

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it farther in advance. But I think tonight was excellent cuz this took an hour. And to have this at a council meeting, as Jamie's pointing out, is probably not the best way to go. And so we're trying to keep our council meetings to end before, let's say, 11:00. Uh we can't do that if we have something like this every meeting. But I

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think tonight's meeting was very good. I thank you on behalf of the village for all of you that attended. We definitely thank both Jasons for coming down. It's a long way to come down and we got some great ideas regardless of which one of gets the ultimate contract. I think we can take some of the ideas from tonight and incorporate it with whichever

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company gets the final approval. Once again, the council makes the final decision. Four of them are here tonight. Uh the fifth one's going to watch this either live or recorded. So, all five council members will have heard all the input tonight when they make their decision. So, anything else before we adjourn tonight? Seeing none, it's uh

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before 7 o'clock. So, we thank you again for coming and appreciate you being here. >> Thanks.