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Deputy City Administrator Nelson stated that the electrical piece, because we contract with him <br />and it's fee based, that might be something we need to look at. It's a different fee schedule than <br />our normal fee. <br />Mayor Ramsey asked how soon. <br />City Administrator Ulrich stated not soon — not until we have the funding wrapped up. Non- <br />contracted City expenses the City could waive. We did it with City Hall. He inquired can fees <br />be waived like City Hall or should we say we are putting enough forward so we have fees in <br />place. <br />Mayor Ramsey suggested maybe cut them in half and we will not lose money on it. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated that in concept, it sounds fine. On top of x million dollars, maybe <br />we would do another $44,000 but we have already put in $2 million. <br />Mr. Olson referred to the cost estimate summary contained in Council's topic report. He went <br />over the fees. We will take the information and we will look at potentially decreasing the total <br />cost of the project but making sure we do not waive any fees we would contract out for. <br />Mayor Ramsey asked if any other agencies would be asked to reduce fees or waive them to <br />which Mr. Ulrich responded we will do that. <br />Director of Public Works Olson continued with the third discussion point: Ridership marketing <br />campaign to manage transition of riders to rail. He stated there has been a lot of discussion about <br />making sure the ridership stays consistent on the bus as is currently. The concern is that we do <br />not want ridership to leave public transit altogether. They want us to explore raising our fees to <br />something that is closer to Anoka, for example. There's a chance we will lose ridership now. <br />When we went from $4 to $2.75, the ridership nearly doubled. We cannot attribute all that <br />increase to a fare decrease but it is fair to say that is a lot of the reason. <br />Councilmember Wise stated he has always advocated that people who use mass transit get by <br />way too cheap so he had no problem increasing the fee and aligning it with the marketing study. <br />Mr. Olson stated we are at $3 — Anoka is at $4. We will be meeting with Matt Harrington to talk <br />about transferring bus riders to train. We do not want to overpromise. Mr. Olson added — or <br />maybe decrease fare and increase ridership. <br />Mayor Ramsey stated he would be in favor. <br />Councilmember Tossey stated that if you raise it a dollar, that's an extra $48,000 a year, but if <br />you do not keep riders ... that's a tough one. He stated he would be cautious about raising it — if <br />we raise it too much, we will see a loss. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated that with the NorthStar, when Elk River proposed $1 a ride — a lot <br />of people came to fight against that difference in cost. He noted that the bus is considerably less <br />City Council Work Session — June 7, 2011 <br />Page 8of14 <br />