Title VI, Environmental Justice, and Customer Service January 24, 2013

1. Title VI, Environmental Justice, and Customer ServiceJanuary 24, 2013 Presented by: Robbie L. Sarles, President RLS & Associates, Inc.

2. Objectives • Overview of civil rights legislation requirements for transit • Enable agencies to develop appropriate Title VI plans and assess compliance • Provide guidance on the development of public participation plans

3. Objectives • Provide guidance on methods to eliminate or prevent civil rights violations • Provide effective customer service insights and tools

4. Civil Rights Related Requirements for Transit • Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Providing Language Access to Persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) – Executive Order 13166 • Environmental Justice – Executive Order 12898

5. Title VI and ADA Title VI ADA Protection based on disability Is enforceable in court and does create rights and remedies • Protection based on race, color, or national origin • Is not enforceable in court and does not create any rights or remedies

6. Unintentional Discrimination Transit service discrimination can occur in many ways, including: • Assigning buses to routes (old vs. new buses) • Crowding allowed on buses • Service headways • Service on-time performance • Temporal distribution of service (time of day, day of week)

7. FTA’s Title VI Circular • Distinguishes between Title VI and Environmental Justice by creating two circulars • Title VI Requirements and Guidance for Federal Transit Administration Recipients, FTA C 4702.1B • Environmental Justice Policy Guidance for Federal Transit Administration Recipients, FTA C 4703.1 • Considered equally important

8. Circulars • Title VI Circular – 4702.1B issued August 28, 2012, effective October 1, 2012 • Environmental Justice Circular – 4703.1 issued July 14, 2012, effective August 15, 2012

9. Title VI • Applies to all FTA recipients and sub-recipients • “No person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” • 42 U.S.C., Section 2000d

10. Title VI Protects: • Anyone intended to be the beneficiary of, applicant for, or participant in a Federally assisted program • Applies to all persons • All races • All shades of color • National Origin

11. Applicability • Recipient • State DOT • Transit Agency • Any Public or Private agency receiving FTA Funding • Subrecipient • Pass through recipient of FTA Financial Assistance

12. Institution-wide • Later statutes extended the scope of Title VI to include prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of income, age, sex, and disability

13. DOT and DOJ Regulation • Prohibits disparate impact discrimination • Practice lacks a substantial legitimate justification • There are other comparable alternatives that would result in less disparate impact • The justification is a pretext for discrimination • Intentional discrimination • Disparate treatment

14. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients may not: • Deny any protected individual service, financial aid, or benefit under the program • Provide any service, financial aid, or benefit that is different for protected individuals from that provided to others • Subject a protected individual to segregation or separate treatment

15. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients may not: (continued) • Restrict a protected individual in the employment of any advantage or privilege enjoyed by others • Treat protected individuals differently in terms of whether they satisfy admission, eligibility, or membership requirements • Deny a protected individual the opportunity to participate in the provision of services

16. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients may not: (continued) • Deny a protected individual the opportunity to participate as a member of a planning or advisory body • Use criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination

17. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients may not: (continued) • Make decisions in regard to facility location with the purpose or effect of subjecting persons to discrimination • Discriminate with regard to the routing, scheduling, or quality of transit service

18. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients may not: (continued) • Use race, color, or national origin as a basis for determining frequency of service, age and quality of vehicles assigned to routes, quality of stations serving different routes, and location of routes

19. DOT Title VI Regulations • Recipients MUST: • Take affirmative action to assure non-discrimination

20. FTA Guidance for Compliance • Title VI Program Guidelines to FTA Recipients • FTA Circular 4702.1B • Proposed circular was published September 29, 2011 and became effective October 1, 2012 • www.fta.dot.gov • Civil rights/accessibility

21. FTA Guidance for Compliance • Annual Title VI Assurances • Annual certification and assurance submission • Direct Recipient Plan Submission • Every 3 Years

22. Eight Required Actions • Develop Title VI complaint procedures • Develop method for filing complaints • Timeframe for accepting complaint • Investigation and resolution timeframe • Who investigates the complaint • Who resolves the complaint • Develop method for investigating and tracking complaints

23. Eight Required Actions • Record Title VI investigations, complaints, and lawsuits • Maintain a list of active investigations conducted by entities other than FTA, lawsuits or complaints alleging discrimination • Date filed • Summary of allegation • Current status • Actions taken in response

24. Eight Required Actions • Provide meaningful access to persons with Limited English Proficiency – benefits, services, information, and other important portions of their programs • Develop an LEP Plan or equivalent

25. Eight Required Actions • Notify beneficiaries of Title VI protections • Disseminate information to public • Statement that agency operates programs without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, income, or disability (should be included in all printed materials regarding service) • Procedures for requesting additional information on non-discrimination obligations • Complaint procedures

26. Eight Required Actions • Notify beneficiaries of Title VI protections (Continued) • Use variety of dissemination methods • General notification • Document translation • See example

27. Eight Required Actions • Provide additional information upon request • In response to a complaint investigation • To resolve concerns about possible non-compliance • Prepare and submit a Title VI program • Report certain general information as part of grant application

28. Eight Required Actions • Analyze impact of construction projects • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) • Categorical exclusion • ODOT will work with each system to determine when a NEPA analysis is required

29. Eight Required Actions • Promote inclusive public participation • Conduct public outreach and involvement activities with minority and low-income individuals • Agency determines most appropriate approach • Should seek out and consider the viewpoints of minority, low-income, and LEP populations when conducting public outreach and involvement activities • Early and continuous opportunity for input

30. Guidance for Transit Agencies • Certify your compliance • Document Title VI complaints/lawsuits • Inform public of your Title VI policy and complaint process • Post complaint process in public locations and public documents • Provide direction of where complaint process can be found

31. Guidance for Transit Agencies • Prepare demographic analysis • Maps with overlays showing distribution of service to protected populations • Set system-wide service standards • Vehicle load, headway, assignment, access, amenities • Monitor and compare • Assess impact of service and fare changes

32. Guidance for Transit Agencies • ODOT is currently working through the processes to enable them to assist with the development of demographic information such as maps • Reporting accurate service standard data is critical in ODOT’s ability to set service standards

33. Guidance for Transit Agencies • Document procedures for informing protected populations of upcoming service changes • Provide a racial breakdown of non-elected boards, advisory councils, and committees • Encourage participation of protected populations’ representatives

34. Potential Title VI Issues • Unintentional exclusion of groups from the decision process • Failure to consider impacts of alternatives and programs on groups • Disproportionate impact

35. What is Public Participation • “Public participation in the transportation field is the process through which transportation agencies inform and engage people in the transportation decision-making process. The goals of public involvement are to provide information to the public and obtain feedback on analysis, recommendations, or decisions.” Public Participation Strategies for Transit; Transportation Research Board; TCRP Synthesis #89; 2011

36. Public Participation • Effective public participation is: • Functional for planning • Helps create better decisions • Meaningful to the public • Provides opportunity to influence decisions • Promotes a sense of ownership in the transit system

37. Public Participation Plan • Effective Public Participation Plans should: • Link public participation to planning • Recognize the intended public audience • Define the transit system’s intentions for public participation

38. Public Participation Plan Public Participation Plans must: • Comply with Title VI and EJ Regulations • Be inclusive • Be appropriate for service and service area • Be practical • Be do-able • Be documentable

39. Public Participation Plan • Developing and implementing a good Public Participation Plan can be difficult. And, it is made more difficult when trying to engage traditionally hard to reach populations such as people with limited English language proficiency and low-income and minority communities

40. Public Participation Plan • The four cornerstones of the Public Participation Plan are: • Purpose • People • Methods • Evaluation

41. Purpose • What the public is involved to do and when • The Plan’s Purpose should: • List planning tasks to create a transit plan • Establish which tasks require or benefit from public involvement • Evaluate when planning tasks must be achieved and when the public must be involved

42. People • Identifies those who are involved in community transit planning • This Cornerstone should: • Describe the public that will be involved in the process • Describe the transit officials and local officials that will be involved in the process

43. Methods • Identifies the specific methods for involving the public to achieve the tasks • Methods are to: • Increase the public’s awareness of planning participation activities

44. Evaluation • Documentation and evaluation of public participation • In the Evaluation portion you will: • Outline and establish procedures for documenting public participation and a protocol for evaluating public participation activities and results

45. Public Participation Plan • If your Plan says you are going to do something, then you have to actually do it and be able to provide documentation to ODOT (as part of the TAR reviews)

46. Public Participation Incorporate Title VI requirements into policies and procedures • Scheduling policies • Fare polices • Eligibility policies • Service area policies

47. Public Participation Encourage and seek participation from those directly impacted • Who is impacted? • Where do I find those who are impacted? • How do I find the most appropriate meeting location and time?

48. Public Participation Contact minority community leaders, organizations, media, and safety and enforcement agencies • Churches • Civic Groups • Homeless Shelters

49. Public Participation Conduct community/public meetings • Where should meetings be held? • Who should be invited to the meetings? • How should I promote and advertise meetings to encourage attendance?

50. Public Participation Participate on civic and advisory committees • Workforce Development Boards • Community Action Boards • United Way Boards