2005 Annual Report - Northeast Florida Regional Council

Transportation PlanningEfficient, well-planned regional transportationThe Council serves as theDesignated Official PlanningAgency for theTransportation Disadvantaged(TD) Program in sixof the region’s sevencounties—Baker, Clay,Flagler, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns—where it isestimated more than 40,000 “transportation disadvantaged”persons reside.The statewide program provides transportation servicesto individuals “who because of physical or mental disability,income status, or age are unable to transport themselvesor to purchase transportation and are therefore,dependent upon others to obtain access to health care,employment, education, shopping, social activities, orother life-sustaining activities.” (Ch. 427, F.S.)As the official planning agency, the Council is responsiblefor: 1) recommending local community transportationcoordinators to the Florida Commission for the TransportationDisadvantaged, which oversees the statewideprogram; 2) performing annual quality assurance evaluationsof the local coordinators, and; 3) appointing andstaffing local coordinating boards who monitor and provideadvice and direction to the local coordinators on aquarterly basis.Programmatic highlights of TD’s 2004-2005 program yearincluded:Awards and recognitionIn late 2005, the Putnam County TD program receivedregional acclaim when Mr. Boyd Thompson, Director ofOperations at Ride Solution Incorporated, was selected asthe recipient of the Council’s 3 rd Annual Regional LeadershipAward for Excellence in Transportation. Mr. Thompsonwas selected for his ongoing work in expanding andcoordinating transit opportunities in Putnam and neighboringcounties, as well as his years of statewide leadershipwithin the TD program. Mr. Thompson’s tirelessefforts have resulted in the Putnam County TD programbeing the first rural county in the region to utilize automatedvehicle location and mobile data terminal technology,as well as integrating paratransit transportationservices into a flex-route format. He was also instrumentalin the completion of a one-of-a-kind service developmentproject to convert a standard duty city bus into asmaller, more flexible,heavy-duty paratransitvehicle capable of enduringthe harsh conditions of theCounty’s many miles ofunpaved roads.Recognition of TD programaccomplishments wasn’tlimited to just the regionallevel in 2005. This year,the region’s TransportationDisadvantaged programswere once again recognizedat the statewide level fortheir outstanding service tothe residents of NortheastFlorida. In July of 2005,Ms. Wanda Boggs, the leadscheduler from Ride SolutionIncorporated in PutnamCounty, received the “Dispatcher/Schedulerof the Year” award from the FloridaCommission for the Transportation Disadvantaged. Ms.Boggs was selected from over a half-dozen nominees fromaround the state for her excellent customer service skills,compassion for riders and outstanding work ethic withinthe organization. Also in 2005, the Northeast FloridaRegional Council was selected once again as a nominee forthe Commission’s statewide “Designated Planning Agencyof the Year” award for its technical assistance to PutnamCounty and its continuing efforts to improve the deliveryof TD services throughout the region as a whole. The2005 Dispatcher/Scheduler of the Year award andCouncil’s award nomination marked the seventh straightyear that the rural TD programs in the region receivedstatewide recognition for the exceptional quality of servicesprovided to Transportation Disadvantaged citizens inNortheast Florida.Statewide program changesBoyd Thompson accepts the award forRegional Excellence in Transportation atthe 2005 Northeast Florida RegionalLeadership Awards Ceremony.The 2005 program year saw a continuation of the statewidereform to the Agency for Health Care Administration’s(AHCA) Medicaid Non-Emergency Transportation (NET)program that began in 2004. In late 2005, AHCA renewedan existing contract with the Commission for the TransportationDisadvantaged (CTD) to provide NET servicesaround the state, but instituted an approximately 7.7%reduction in the overall funding for the contract. Concurrently,AHCA also allowed for newly-formed MedicaidHealth Management Organizations (HMOs), a key ingredi-16