Your AMC membership allows us to advocate for transit issues in Juneau and Washington DC as well as around the state. Your support is greatly appreciated and I look forward to working with all of you in 2015/2016.

If you know of an individual or organization that believes in the importance of public and community transportation in Alaska, please encourage them to become an individual or organizational transit member. They can become a member online.

COMING EVENTS

DATE	EVENT	PLACE/TIME	Additional Information
1/20	Gov. Council Community Forum	Centennial Hall Convention Center, Juneau 6-7:30 PM	additional info.
1/27	AMC Board Retreat	AARP Conference Room All day	Contact Doug Bridges or David Levy for additional info.
2/4	Anchorage Transportation Fair	Alaska Airlines Center Auxiliary - UAA	additional info.
5/31-6/5	Community Transportation Expo	Tampa, FL	additional info.

AMC NEWS

FAIRBANKS TRANSPORTATION PARTNERSHIP PROJECT (FTPP)

VISTA Project. - Last week, Art Delaune, Adam Barth, Casey and I met with representatives from the VISTA program in Fairbanks to discuss a proposal for a VISTA volunteer to oversee the Fairbanks project. If the application is approved, a VISTA position would open in the spring. We are also looking for Fairbanks residents that would be interested in serving as a VISTA volunteer for this project. Please contact Art, Casey or me for more information.

Fairbanks Coordinated Transportation Plan - Last week, Casey and I met with FTPP members and the Fairbanks Metropolitan Area Transportation System (FMATS) staff to discuss the planning process for the Fairbanks Coordinated Transportation Plan. Casey and Tom Schneider with the Fairbanks Resource Agency (FRA) have been assigned to review the old 2010 plan and get back to us with the information on the parts of the plan that need to be updated and reviewed for 2015. We will keep you posted, but we are hoping to hold a kick-off event to review and discuss the plan in March.

Fairbanks Legislators - Adam Barth and I met with Representative Tammie Wilson and Senator Pete Kelly's staff. I also met with Representative Scott Kawasaki last week to discuss the upcoming legislative session as well as review and discuss the Fairbanks Transportation Partnership Project. For those legislators that I did not meet, I am planning to follow up with them during the upcoming legislative session.

Fairbanks Ads - Bus ads are running on University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Fairbanks MACS Transit buses and Casey and I are working with the MAC bus advertiser to get the outside ads placed on the buses. We are also working on radio ads and we should have those in place next month.

PRE SESSION LEGISLATIVE OUTREACH

The 2015 session of the Alaska Legislature begins next week. I have been working with AMC members throughout the state to update legislators on our priorities for the session as well as discuss transit issues and challenges in the local communities. A big "thank you" to AMC members Pat Branson, Marianne Mills, Doug Bridges, Millie Ryan, Joan O'Keefe, Rorie Watt, Adam Barth, Lou Friend, Lamar Anderson, Naomi Nelson, Brad Sworts, Lance Wilber and Jay Dulany for their assistance and participation in meeting with legislators from Kodiak, Juneau, Fairbanks, Mat-Su Valley and Chugiak/Eagle River.

We have two priorities during the 2015 Alaska legislature.

*Support for the State Match for Public Transportation - Once again, the AMC is asking for the legislature support for the state match program. The program has generated $5 million in state funds over the last four years. The funding has been used to match federal, other state, local and private funds to buy equipment, hire drivers and expand routes to support Alaskans getting to work, school and medical appointments. I have attached a copy of the FY15 state match distribution for your review.

*Creation of Transportation Trust Fund - According to the National Council of State Legislatures, Alaska is the only state in the union that does not have a dedicated transportation trust fund. That means that all of our gas taxes, DMV fees and other transportation revenue go into the general fund. In the meantime, Alaska continues to lag in replacing must needed transportation infrastructure such as roads, bridges, ferries, airports and public transportation. The Alaska Mobility Coalition (AMC) is working with transportation advocates to create a statewide transportation fund for Alaska.

We are pleased to be working with outgoing State Representative Peggy Wilson on this project and are working to identify a legislator who will re-introduce her bill during the upcoming session. In the meantime, the AMC is looking for funding to put together a statewide awareness campaign, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact Doug Bridges (AMC president) or myself. I have linked an overview of Representative Wilson's proposal for your review.

AMC BOARD UPDATES

The AMC Board of Directors will meet face-to-face on January 27th in Anchorage. The all day training will be conducted by the Foraker Group.

Also, listed below are monthly AMC committee meetings. If you are interested in serving on an AMC committee, please contact Doug Bridges (AMC president) or myself for more information:

AMC Finance Committee- Jody Karcz (chair) - 2nd Tuesday

AMC Government Relations - Doug Bridges (chair) - 2nd Thursday

AMC Fundraising/Membership Committee - NA - 3rd Thursday

C&PTAB MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION RECOMMENDATIONS

The Community and Public Transportation Advisory Board (C&PTAB) recently submitted recommendations to Deputy Commissioner Sherwood for medical transportation in Alaska . Those recommendations are linked here for your review.

ALASKA MENTAL HEALTH TRUST

EMPLOYMENT STAKEHOLDER INITIATIVE

The Trust Employment Stakeholder Initiative meeting was held September 26th. Linked is a summary of meeting results, preliminary framework for the next phase of the initiative planning and a useful reference and overview of the Results-Based Accountability (RBA) approach.

Also the final report from Institute for Community Inclusion is available on the Trust website.

NEW ALASKA TTAP CENTER WEBSITE

Check out the new Alaska TTAP Center website for:

Web address: tribalmgmt.uaf.edu/akttap

Thank you for your support and interest in the Alaska Mobility Coalition (AMC). If you have questions about this report or any AMC project or activity, please contact me.

Sincerely,

David M. Levy
Alaska Mobility Coalition