TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM

 

DATE:   December 11, 2024

TO:         Brian Kane, Chair of Administration and Finance Committee

FROM:   Tegin Teich, Executive Director of Central Transportation Planning Staff to the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

RE:         State Fiscal Year 2025 Goals and Second Quarter Updates

 

In June of 2024, the executive director, Tegin Teich, completed an annual performance evaluation with Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) representatives, following the process described in the MPO’s Operations Plan. The evaluation team included the following:

 

·         The Boston Region MPO’s chair’s designee: David Mohler, Office of Transportation Planning at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)

·         The Boston Region MPO’s vice-chair: Marc Draisen, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)

·         The chair of the Boston Region MPO’s Administration and Finance Committee: Brian Kane, MBTA Advisory Board

 

This memo includes the complete set of State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025 goals established in the review and a summary of progress towards goals completed in Quarter 2 (October through December 2024).

 

1        State Fiscal Year 2025 Goals

The executive director’s evaluation included the following SFY 2025 goals organized by the categories in the agency’s Strategic Plan. These have been abbreviated compared to the description in the evaluation.

 

Identity and Awareness (Sector Leadership/Marketing and Public Presentation)

·         Expand forums to speak about the MPO

·         Identify funding and implement an identity and branding exercise

 

Programs and Services

·         Implement the first stage of multi-year planning at the agency

·         Continue to develop and engage staff in the agency’s overall focus areas to inform the individual multi-year plans

·         Align the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) development process to be complimentary to multi-year work planning

 

Governance

·         Embed the Operations Plan into ongoing agency work

·         Hold new learning opportunities for board members

 

Organizational Structure and Staffing

·         Refresh the Compensation Plan with improved employee engagement

·         Move or renovate the existing office

 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

·         Fund a significant DEI initiative identified by the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee

 

Funding and Operations

·         Complete and sign a fiduciary agent agreement

·         Operate neither with a significant deficit or surplus (0-5 percent)

·         Identify and bring in one new revenue source (i.e., discretionary grant)

·         Continue to build relationships with potential additional partners

 

2        Quarter 2 Updates

The following section summarizes progress made in the SFY 2025 executive director goal areas in October, November, and December of the state fiscal year.

 

2.1     Identity and Awareness

In FFY 2025, the MPO is carrying out a branding exercise and website update. Each effort is expected to utilize about $100,000 of the de-obligated PL funds inclusive of a 20 percent match from MassDOT. A Request for Quotes (RFQ) for the branding effort has been drafted and is in legal review with an anticipated posting date of late December or early January. The website update RFQ is being drafted and is expected to be released soon after.

 

2.2     Programs and Services

The leadership team continues to review multi-year plans for MPO programs and relevant bodies of work. All plans should be presented by the beginning of the calendar year and feedback will be provided to multi-year plan authors in Quarter 3. In addition, the leadership team will prepare the first version of the agency’s action plan to guide the development of the next Long-Range Transportation Plan, which will be kicked off with the MPO board in Quarter 3.

 

2.3     Governance

The MPO policy and planning director and MPO activities manager have begun mapping the Operations Plan’s procedures into agenda planning for the MPO throughout the year. This includes time-sensitive information sharing such as quarterly updates on project readiness. The first quarterly project readiness update is scheduled for December 19.

 

2.4     Organizational Structure and Staffing

A full refresh of the Compensation Plan began in August 2024 and is ongoing. In Quarter 2, the executive director, deputy executive director, and director of finance and operations viewed the first draft results from the market survey of all positions at the agency.

 

2.5     Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

An equity focused organization, YW Boston, was engaged in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 to carry out an initial diagnostic to understand the current state of DEI at the agency and recommend a path forward in terms of approaching DEI work. The initial diagnostic has been completed, and a survey and report were released to the executive leadership team in early December. The next steps will be to determine how to share the findings and use those findings to support a scope of work for an organization-wide assessment to identify, define, and develop an action plan to overcome barriers and help achieve goals related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. This effort will be funded by an initial $35,000 of de-obligated PL funds.

 

2.6     Funding and Operations

The process to develop an up-to-date fiduciary agent agreement has been ongoing since the prior SFY and has been a significant effort for both MPO and MAPC staff supporting the legal, human resource, financial, and procurement activities. The new agreement has been drafted and is in review by the executive leadership team and MAPC.