Your City Council, with the assistance of the Foster City Staff, recently completed a lengthy, detailed, study of Foster City?s five-year Financial Plan and approved a Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2003-2004. There will be a Public Hearing at the June 2nd City Council meeting, and a final approval of the Budget at the June 16th City Council meeting. As predicted in my last Council Corner, our City will continue to provide all essential services in the Fiscal Year 2003-2004. Future years will be more of a challenge.
One example of the challenges the Council will face is the Foster City Connections Shuttle. Some of you may not know what this shuttle is, or how important it is to a segment of our citizens. The Connections Shuttle is a free, scheduled service with two routes connecting Foster City neighborhoods to CalTrain, SAMTRANS, and shopping centers. The Connections Shuttle offers scheduled service between 9:30AM until 3:30PM Monday through Friday and is used by our residents who do not, or are no longer able to drive. There are two routes, Blue and Red. The Blue Route serves the neighborhoods on the East Side of Edgewater Blvd. The Red Route serves the remainder of Foster City neighborhoods.
The Connections Shuttle is the successor to Foster City?s Sunshine Shuttle. The Sunshine Shuttle was our initial attempt to provide a free transit system in Foster City. Initiated in 1999, the Sunshine Shuttle had four routes. It was an ambitious effort to enable Foster City residents and business employees to access our public facilities and our shopping centers. Sunshine Shuttle service was paid for from our General Fund. Cost per rider was $9.30 in 1999 and dropped to $4.84 in 2001 as ridership increased. The economic downturn that year caused the City Council to reconsider the value of the Sunshine Shuttle.
An Ad-Hoc Sunshine Shuttle Committee was formed in 2002 and recommended reducing the number of Sunshine Shuttle routes and costs. They proposed the Connections Shuttle, funding to be provided by the General Fund with matching funds provided from C/CAG. The City Council accepted this recommendation and received matching funds in the amount of $70,000. The Connections Shuttle began service on an evaluation basis for one year beginning February 2003. Average weekly ridership is 688 passengers. Average cost per ride is $2.95. The Connections Shuttle is only funded through January 31, 2004.
The approved preliminary 2003-2004 Budget does not include funding beyond that date. Questions the City Council must answer are: ?Is the expense of the Connections Shuttle justified?? ?Can this segment of the population be served in another way?? ?Are these riders worthy of this special service?? I will vote to continue the Connections Shuttle through 2004 in order to serve the Connections Shuttle riders. In my opinion this group includes seniors whose past contributions to our society have earned our consideration, and young people who will support us when we may have similar needs in the future.
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