AN ACT Relating to public transportation; and adding a new chapter to Title 47 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This chapter may be cited as the Public Transportation Consumer Protection Act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The legislature finds and declares that:

(1) Public transportation services are provided to assist the transit dependent and the poor, to relieve congestion, and to minimize automobile pollution;

(2) Protection of consumers, the public transit riders, and taxpayers requires that public transportation service be provided at the lowest possible cost consistent with service and safety standards;

(3) Private transportation providers have been used under competitive contracts to provide public transportation services at lower costs and with lower annual cost increases;

(4) Decisions on whether a public transportation service should be operated by a public agency or a private company should be made on economic considerations rather than on institutional considerations;

(5) Obtaining cost-effective public transportation services requires a competitive environment and a mechanism for competitive contracting of such services;

(6) Facilities and vehicles purchased for public transportation service are public assets that are held in the public trust for service to public transit riders and the taxpayers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The definitions set forth in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Attributable fully allocated cost" means the operating and capital cost of a public transportation service including the direct costs of driver labor and benefits based upon actual driver work assignments for the service, and a reasonable allocation of costs for replacement and spare drivers and all other costs of providing and administering transportation and maintenance for the service, minus the cost of any function not to be competitively contracted.

(2) "Public transit operator" means a public agency that provides or sponsors public transportation service and receives a public subsidy.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1) On an annual basis, each public transit operator shall seek competitive proposals on at least ten percent of its fixed-route bus service. The annual competitive proposal requirement shall be met only by the requests for proposal for services not currently operated under competitive proposals. The annual competitive proposal requirement shall be based upon the annual vehicle miles for the latest fiscal year for which information is available.

(2) Notwithstanding the requirement of subsection (1) of this section, the competitive contracting required under this chapter shall be accomplished through attrition of the public transit operator's full-time drivers and mechanics employed by the public transit operator on the effective date of this act. A public transit operator may hire new permanent drivers and mechanics only to the extent necessary to operate services that the public transit operator has been awarded through competitive proposals.

(3) A fixed-route bus service operated under competitive proposals on the effective date of this act or thereafter is subject to a new competitive proposal at least every five years. In no case may a service operated under competitive proposal be returned to operation not subject to competitive proposal. Renewal options that extend a contract beyond five years are prohibited.

(4) The public transit operator shall determine the routes, schedules, and fares to be included in any request for proposal.

(5) Savings obtained through competitive service provision shall be used only for consumer benefit, including increased service levels, reduced passenger fares, new capital facilities, and reduction of public transportation subsidies.

(6) Each public transit operator shall make buses purchased after the effective date of this act available for operation under competitive proposals by private transportation providers under nominal leases.

(7) Each public transit operator shall maintain a list of interested proposers, including all organizations that have requested inclusion on the list. The public transit operator shall advertise for additions to the interested proposers list at least annually in accordance with its general procurement policy.

(8) A public transit operator may replace service with alternative service provision methods through competitive proposals if the public transit operator finds the alternative service methods to be in the public interest.

(9) A public transit operator may execute standby competitive contracts with one or more private transportation providers to operate a service on an interim basis if the public transit operator determines the operation is required by the public welfare. A service operated under a standby contract is subject to competitive proposal within six months of standby contract service commencement.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) Within six months of the effective date of this act, each public transit operator shall adopt reasonable standards with respect to experience, safety records, and financial responsibility by which private transportation providers can be qualified to provide bus services under this chapter. The standards shall not be designed to restrict the number of eligible participants in the competitive proposal process.

(2) Within six months of the effective date of this act, each public transit operator shall prepare a standard form of agreement to provide bus services. The contract shall include:

(a) Reasonable passenger comfort, safety, and vehicle maintenance standards;

(b) Standards for access to bus services for persons with disabilities, which standards shall be as specified in the public transit operator's plan for such services;

(d) Requirements for reasonable insurance protecting the public transit operator from liability for the acts, negligence, or omission of private transportation providers, their agents, and their employees;

(e) Reasonable standards for reliability and on-time performance;

(f) Reasonable penalties for inadequate performance, including the public transit operator's right to cancel contracts;

(g) Provisions and standards or the use of the public transit operator's logo, transfers, transit ways, bus stops, vehicles, and other such elements that are owned by the public transit operator and appropriate for use by the private transportation providers under contract to the public transit operator.

(3) A public transit operator may not establish any requirement relating to the wages, benefits, or union organization of contractor employees. All contractors shall comply with and give adequate certification of compliance with all applicable federal and state labor laws.

(4) No change in the contract payment amount to a private transportation provider may be made except as specified in the contract. Payment changes in a contract are limited to indices, escalators, deflators, changes in service level, and other expressly stated or calculable amounts, consistent with the request for proposal and the proposal of the private transportation provider awarded the contract.

(5) Contract expiration dates shall be rotated to the maximum extent feasible to minimize the number of contract awards under consideration at any particular time.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1) Each request for proposals shall specify the route, service frequency, and fares as determined by the public transit operator.

(2) The public transit agency shall seek the widest reasonable distribution of each request for proposals, and at a minimum shall send each request for proposals to each organization on the interested proposers list and to each additional organization that requests the specific request for proposal.

(3) The public transit operator shall advertise each request for proposals within ten days of issuance, and in accordance with its general procurement policy.

(4) Submission of proposals shall be required not less than forty-five days from the advertisement date.

(5) Services shall commence under any request for proposal within one hundred twenty days of the deadline for proposals.

(6) Each request for proposals shall be limited to the least amount of service that may be commercially practicable so that the largest possible number of private transportation providers may respond. No single request for proposal may include more than the greater of either:

(a) Three percent of the public transit operator's weekday peak period requirement; or

(b) A fifteen-bus peak requirement.

(7) Any qualified private transportation provider may respond to any request for proposals. Each public transit operator shall ensure that disadvantaged business enterprises, as defined in Part 23 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as amended, have the greatest possible opportunity to respond.

(8) With respect to each request for proposals, the public transit operator shall award the contract to the private transportation provider or public transit operator whose responsible and responsive proposal offers the lowest cost.

(9) No private transportation provider may be awarded contracts covering, in the aggregate:

(a) More than twenty-five percent of the annual vehicle miles of a public transit operator with a peak bus requirement of sixty or more; or

(b) More than fifteen peak buses of a public transit operator with a peak bus requirement of fewer than sixty.

(10) No company, subsidiary of a company, parent of a company, or company related to a company holding a contract to manage the public transit operator may submit a proposal or be awarded a contract to operate public transportation services for the public transit operator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. A public transit operator, including a public transit operator issuing the competitive procurement, may submit a proposal, and be awarded any such service, subject to the following conditions:

(1) That it submit a sealed proposal before the advertised deadline for the proposals, that the proposal not be altered after that deadline, and that the proposal be publicly opened and made public at such deadline;

(2) That any labor provision assumed in the proposal either be specified in currently effective labor contracts or be executed before the proposal deadline in a written and binding agreement between the public transportation operator and the appropriate labor organization;

(3) That it take reasonable steps to ensure an objective and fair evaluation process including prohibition of proposal evaluation participation by personnel or departments that were involved in preparing the public transportation operator's proposal;

(4) That its proposal price be not less than its attributable fully allocated cost for the service, and that its proposal price not be based on part-time labor provisions or other less costly labor provisions to a greater percentage than such provisions are employed in the public transportation operator's fixed route bus services that have not been subjected to competitive proposals, and that its proposal price be consistent with currently adopted budgets and financial plans;

(5) That it shall make or be bound by no contract, agreement, or assurance that creates or extends any form of obligation for continued employment or employee compensation, except for pension, beyond the contract expiration date under the provisions of the request for proposal for employees assigned to the service;

(6) That it shall be bound by the same terms, conditions, and performance and other standards as would have applied to a private transportation provider awarded the contract under the request for proposal;

(7) That its costs per vehicle mile, exclusive of capital costs, for fixed route bus services that have not been subjected to competitive proposals shall not at any point during the contract rise by a percentage greater than the cost per vehicle mile, exclusive of capital costs, for the competitive service in the public transit operator's proposal for the corresponding period.

(a) Each adopted budget or budget revision and each United States department of transportation urban mass transportation administration section 15 annual report shall be reviewed by the public transit operator to determine compliance with this provision.

(b) If the public transit operator's cost performance is not in compliance with this provision, the public transit operator shall relinquish the contract and a new request for proposal for the service shall be issued within ninety days.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. Each public transit operator shall contract with an independent certified accounting firm, other than the public transit operator's regular auditor, for a neutral and unbiased performance audit to be completed and reported to the legislature by two years after the effective date of this act. The performance audit shall analyze in a fair and equitable fashion the implementation of this chapter including, but not limited to, compliance with the competitive proposal process, compliance with fully allocated costing requirements, the level of contract compliance by private transportation providers, the cost of such compliance, whether such costs will be recurring or may be reduced, application of savings to consumer benefit, and taxes paid by private transportation providers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. (1) The planning of all maintenance facilities, operations facilities, and garages shall include a thorough review of competitive alternatives available for efficient development, management, and operations for the facilities. The planning process shall include private transportation providers, and any application for funding assistance shall include a full description of the alternatives reviewed.

(2) No public transit vehicle, maintenance, or operating facility purchased or leased after the effective date of this act may be encumbered by a contract, agreement, or assurance that limits its use by private transportation providers in the operation of public transportation service under contract, subject to the policy control of the public transit operator.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. No public transit operator may make or be bound by a contract, agreement, or assurance that restricts its ability to comply with this chapter in any respect.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. Sections 1 through 11 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 47 RCW.