City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of Approval of a One-Year Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Capital Funding Agreement.
BODY
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ISSUE: Consideration of approval of a one-year Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Capital Funding Agreement.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
1. Approve a one-year WMATA Capital Fund Agreement (CFA) for FY 2020 (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020); and
2. Authorize the City Manager to sign and execute the FY 2020 WMATA CFA.
BACKGROUND: The CFA has served as the legal Capital Funding Agreement between WMATA and its contributing jurisdictions, including the City of Alexandria, City of Fairfax, City of Falls Church, Fairfax County, Arlington County, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia since FY 2011. The CFA provides a capital funding commitment for WMATA to match Federal funds, to advance capital projects and programs, and to fund ongoing contractual agreements. Prior to FY 2011, back to WMATA’s Capital Program origins, there have been a series of mutually agreed to capital improvement agreements.
The current CFA was amended and executed in 2018 and covered a one-year period, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. A new agreement is needed for FY 2020 to ensure the continued progress of WMATA's capital program. While it is preferable to have a multi-year WMATA Capital agreement, it was not possible to get regional agreement in the short-term. Rather it was mutually decided to develop a one-year agreement and work on a multi-year agreement during the current fiscal year.
DISCUSSION: The new CFA contains most of the terms and conditions from the 2011 agreement but updates it to reflect the 2018 Dedicated Funding Laws passed by Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia and to reconcile WMATA Board policy with the language in the agreement. Conflict between WMATA Board policies and the requirements outlined in the last CFA resulted in WMATA receiving audit findings from its auditors.
The FY 2020 agreement will fund the jurisdictions' share of WMATA’s $1.76 billion FY 2020 capital budget. The FY 2020 agreement contains two amendments dealing with reporting requirements for reprogramming funds between projects and a new definition of debt based solely on the dedicated funding agreement.
Following extensive coordination, jurisdiction staff has reached consensus that this CFA should only serve for FY 2020. Staff is continuing regular coordination with WMATA to negotiate a six-year agreement for FY 2021 to FY 2026 with the goal of final approval by March 2020.
FISCAL IMPACT: The City’s share of the approved FY 2020 WMATA capital budget is $12.3 million which has been included in the City’s adopted Capital Improvement Program.
ATTACHMENT: WMATA Fiscal Year 2020 Capital Funding Agreement
STAFF:
Emily A. Baker, Deputy City Manager
Yon Lambert, Director, T&ES
Kendel Taylor, Director, Finance
Sarah McElveen, Assistant City Attorney
Hillary Orr, Deputy Director, T&ES
Christopher Ziemann, Division Chief, Transit Services, T&ES