Meeting_Body
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
APRIL 25, 2024
Subject
SUBJECT: BUS OPERATOR RETROFIT BARRIERS
Action
ACTION: APPROVE RECOMMENDATIONS
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
CONSIDER:
A. AUTHORIZING the Chief Executive Officer, or their designee, approval authority for procurements to support the emergency condition due to the sudden, unexpected increased severity of assaults on operators, in accordance with Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Acquisition Policy and Procedure Manual, Acquisition Procedures ACQ2, Chapter 11, Section 11.8 "Emergency Procurements," Public Utilities Code 130234 and Public Contracting Code 20233 (Attachment A), that cannot be met through normal procurement methods through December 31, 2024;
(REQUIRES TWO-THIRDS VOTE OF THE FULL BOARD)
B. APPROVING a Life-of-Project (LOP) budget of $3,000,000 for bus operator retrofit barriers for Metro's Bus fleet; and
C. AUTHORIZING the Chief Executive Officer, or their designee, to negotiate and execute all necessary agreements for the bus operator retrofit barriers.
Issue
ISSUE
Bus operator assaults have increased nationwide, and Metro has experienced a similar trend. According to the National Transit Database (NTD), from 2008 to 2021, there was an average of 192 assaults that occurred each year in or on transit vehicles. Alarmingly, major assaults on transit workers, which the FTA defines as an event resulting in a fatality or injury requiring medical transport, nearly tripled between 2008 and 2021. Although Metro has retrofitted all buses with operator shields that minimize the severity of the assaults, assailants can still reach around the shields and physically assault the operator because the shields are not completely enclosed. Despite current efforts to eliminate bus operator assaults through strategies such as de-escalation training and dedicated bus riding teams, assaults against operators behind the barriers have become increasingly egregious and viol...
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