Policies developed to guide Office of Public Transit procedures, requirements and funding distribution
Beginning with state fiscal year 2011, the Office of Public Transit adopted the policy to require all proposals for state funded projects to follow the terms listed in the Iowa Department of Transportation Bid Requirements document.
Procurement Document for Transit AgenciesPublic transit equipment and facilities management system (PTMS)
PTMS PoliciesFormulas
- Accumulated mileage minus standard fleet mileage divided by 3,500 equals mileage score
- Actual months owned minus fleet life months equals age score
- Mileage score plus age score equals vehicle score
Civil Rights Policy and Procedure - Assurance of Non discrimination
The Iowa DOT's Office of Public Transit, and each Iowa transit system that receives public transit funding from that office have provided assurances that no individual will be discriminated against in the delivery of benefits under the transit program on the basis of race, age, disability, religion, color, sex or national origin.
Opportunity to file complaints regarding discrimination
Any person who believes that he or she, individually, or as a member of any specific class of persons, has been subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, age, disability, religion, color, sex or national origin with regard to any project funded by the Iowa DOT’s Office of Public Transit may file a written complaint with the director of the Office of Public Transit. A complaint must be filed within 180 days after the date of the alleged discrimination, unless the time for filing is extended by the director.
Any complaint related to the direct activities of the Office of Public Transit should be submitted in writing directly to the director of the Office of Public Transit at the address listed below. For complaints related to the activities of an individual Iowa public transit system or a contractor to an Iowa public transit system, the Office of Public Transit recommends that any such complaint be initially filed with the individual public transit system involved for resolution at the local level. In those cases where the complainant is dissatisfied with the resolution of the complaint by the transit system, the same complaint may subsequently be submitted to the director of the Office of Public Transit for investigation.
Director, Office of Public Transit
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, Iowa 50010
Any person who believes that he or she, individually, or as a member of any specific class of persons, has been subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, age, disability, religion, color, sex or national origin with regard to any project funded by the Iowa DOT’s Office of Public Transit may file a written complaint with the director of the Office of Public Transit. A complaint must be filed within 180 days after the date of the alleged discrimination, unless the time for filing is extended by the director.
Any complaint related to the direct activities of the Office of Public Transit should be submitted in writing directly to the director of the Office of Public Transit at the address listed below. For complaints related to the activities of an individual Iowa public transit system or a contractor to an Iowa public transit system, the Office of Public Transit recommends that any such complaint be initially filed with the individual public transit system involved for resolution at the local level. In those cases where the complainant is dissatisfied with the resolution of the complaint by the transit system, the same complaint may subsequently be submitted to the director of the Office of Public Transit for investigation.
Director, Office of Public Transit
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, Iowa 50010
Persons with discrimination complaints related to the activities of a particular transit system are encouraged to use the links provided on this Web site to check that system’s site for a description of their specific complaint process. If no process is posted, complaints may be directed to the contact individuals listed on this site for the respective transit system.
Upon investigation of a complaint filed at either the local or the Office of Public Transit level, a written statement of findings and proposed remedies (if necessary), will be provided to the complainant.
For any complaint involving a project using federal transit funding, final resolution may rest with the Federal Transit Administration or the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Complaint processCounting Only Open-to-the-Public Services for STA Formula
Beginning with state fiscal year 2008 statistics, the Office of Public Transit adopted the policy to begin using only statistics from open-to-the-public services to calculate state transit assistance allocations.
Counting only open-to-the-public services for STA formulaCounting Vanpool Stats for STA Formula
Beginning with state fiscal year 2008 statistics, the Office of Public Transit adopted a policy to include statistics generated from vanpool into the STA funding distribution formula. All vanpool programs must have policies and procedures in place allowing persons other than vanpool members to access the service on a daily basis, for any purpose, should their travel needs, in terms of schedule and route coincide with one of the vanpools, provided there is space available. Criteria for judging this shall be similar to that used for human services transportation, including, but not limited to, publication of ride request numbers and establishment of daily general public fares that reflect the benefit of state and federal transit assistance.
Counting vanpool stats for STA formulaLate application penalty
The consequence of late applications, with regards to formula funding, shall be that payments will be withheld until a fully executed contract is in place. With regards to discretionary funding, late applications will not be eligible for funding. If any transit system misses the Consolidated Transit Funding Application deadline, which is the first business day of May, the Office of Public Transit will contact the transit manager and their supervisor or head of their governing body, notifying them of the consequences and encouraging them to get their application in as soon as possible to minimize the amount of payments to be held.
Late application penaltyDelinquent Year-End reports
A key responsibility of all transit systems is to plan and budget for future services. A number of systems are subject to specific schedules for adopting a budget because they are part of a larger entity, such as a city, which has deadlines established in the Code of Iowa. Recognizing this, the Office of Public Transit tries to announce the allocations of funding for the coming years in early December. Because Iowa uses performance statistics to allocate the funding, however, the Office of Public Transit must have finalized stats from the previous year by the Friday before Thanksgiving. If finalized numbers are not available, the Office of Public Transit has been unable to provide these allocation figures.
If a transit system is unable to provide finalized year-end stats by the announced deadline, the Office of Public Transit will substitute that system’s final numbers from the prior year, adjusted down by 2 percent. This will allow the allocations for all other systems to be generated. Once the delinquent system has finalized figures, the formula can be rerun. If it turns out that the adjusted prior year numbers resulted in a higher allocation than the actual figures would have, the system’s actual allocation would be the official one, and any excess would be prorated to the other systems. If it turns out that the actual stats would have resulted in an allocation at least as high as that produced by the adjusted prior year numbers, that figure will become official. If the Office of Public Transit determines that, based on extenuating circumstances, the system should be held harmless from at least some part of the impact of using the adjusted prior year stats, special projects funds can be used to make up the difference.
This policy began with the state fiscal year 2006 statistics, which were used to determine the state fiscal year 2008 funding distribution percentages.
Delinquent Year-End reports proceduresSubcontracting Requirements Related to Title VI
Subcontracting Requirements Related to Title VI 