Conference Of Minority Transportation Officials COMTO Discussion Meeting With The Honorable Raymond

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Conference Of Minority Transportation Officials
(COMTO)Discussion Meeting With The Honorable
Raymond LaHood Secretary of TransportationUS
Department of TransportationApril 1, 2009
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Agenda

• History
• Youth Initiatives
• Partnership/Relationship w/DOT
• Key Issues Recommendations
• Workforce Diversity Compliance
• DOT DBE Program
• Congressional Testimony
• DBE Portal Clearing House
• Transportation SummitEconomic Recovery
• COMTO Events
• Summary/Recommendations

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COMTO History

• Founded in 1971 as a networking vehicle for
  minority senior professionals in public
  transportation.
• Today COMTO is the nations only multimodal
  advocacy organization for minorities in
  transportation and includes professionals in
  public transportation, aviation, highways, rail
  and maritime.
• Membership includes individuals, transit
  agencies, airports, state DOTs, business members,
  small businesses, academic including Historically
  Black Colleges and Universities, and other
  not-for-profit organizations
• 39 chapters throughout the U.S.

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COMTO TERRITORY
39 Chapters
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COMTO Youth Initiatives

• Annual Garrett Morgan Youth Conference Occurs
  at COMTO National Meeting Training Conference
  and attended by approx 100 students each year.
  Purpose is to introduce high school students to
  careers in transportation
• Garrett Morgan Shadow Day Chapters partner with
  elementary, middle and high schools to introduce
  students to transportation careers/industry
• Scholarship Initiative COMTO Awards over
  200,000 annually in scholarships for higher
  education
• FTA COMTO Careers In Transportation For Youth
  (CITY) Program which is an internship program to
  attract minority students into careers in public
  transportation.

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COMTO Has Good Partnership/Relationship w/USDOT

• COMTO President/CEO served on President Obamas
  Transition Team/DOT Agency Review
• Annually FTA and FHWA host Civil Rights
  Colloquium at COMTO National Meeting Training
  Conference
• COMTO Awarded DBE Advocate of Year (2006)
• COMTO Administers the Careers In Transportation
  For Youth (CITY) Program, an internship and
  recruitment program for (junior senior) college
  level minority students. The purpose of the
  program is to identify, attract and recruit
  minority college students into public
  transportation careers
• COMTO Hosts/provides logistical support for FTA
  Title VI Workshops for federal grantees.
  Workshops are conducted around the country and
  include participation of COMTO chapters.
• COMTO Published the first FTA CD-ROM on DBE
  methodology for federal grantees
• COMTO has provided internships to interns from
  African nations through FTA grants
• COMTO President CEO traveled to Africa with DOT
  Delegation
• COMTO Awarded small FTA grant in 2009 to host
  international conference

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Diversity In The Transportation Industry
Workforce

• Issue 1 EEO4 Compliance Monitoring Is Poor
• TRB Study on Race Gender Diversity For State
  DOTs and Public Transit Agencies indicated that
  currently the reporting by federal grantees is
  lacking to the degree that the TRB research team
  could not establish a baseline to determine the
  number of women and minorities in State DOTs and
  public transit agencies.
• EEO4 data was not sufficiently available from the
  DOT.
• Recommendation COMTO is prepared to take the
  lead and establish an electronic clearing
  house/database for federal grantees to track EEO4
  data.

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Diversity In The Transportation Industry
Workforce

• Issue 2 FAA will hire 10,000 Air Traffic
  Control Specialists in next few years. ATCS
  Workforce needs to be diverse.
• COMTO Recommendation COMTO and FAA partner to
  ensure diversity in the ATCS workforce.
• COMTO submitted an unsolicited proposal to FAA
  to recruit candidates from around the U.S.
• COMTO has the national bandwidth and
  infrastructure to move this effort.
• Issue 3 Next GEN ATC
• COMTO Recommendation Ensure procurement
  opportunities for small and Disadvantaged
  Business Enterprises

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Diversity In The Transportation Industry
Workforce

• Issue 4 Minority Recruitment In
  Transportation Workforce
• COMTO developed and submitted a TRB Problem
  Statement to recruit more minority professionals
  into CEO positions in public transportation.
  (Funded by TRB at 250K).
• COMTO Recommendation For DOT to fund disparity
  studies to ensure next generation of
  transportation professionals is a diverse
  workforce for all the modal administrations.
• Heavy Highway Construction Careers for
  minorities, women and the economically
  disadvantaged COMTO has partnered with Missouri
  DOT and provides mediation/conflict resolution
  services for stakeholder group meetings. This
  effort has been a key factor in ensuring MoDOTs
  successful recruitment and retention of
  minorities, women and the economically
  disadvantaged into heavy highway
  construction/skilled trade jobs.
• COMTO Recommendation DOT tout MoDOT as the
  National Model for hiring women, minorities and
  the economically disadvantaged on heavy highway
  construction projects.

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MoDOT Process Is a Good News Story

• COMTO Partners with Missouri DOT to provide
  conflict resolution for stakeholder groups on
• The New I-64 Highway Expansion (St. Louis, MO)
• Paseo Bridge Project (Kansas City, MO)
• New Mississippi River Bridge Project (St. Louis,
  MO and East St. Louis, IL)
• MoDOT produced video to showcase success

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DOT Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program

• Issue 5 DOT DBE Program
• Congressional Testimony Per request of
  Congressman Oberstar, COMTO provided testimony at
  the March 26, 2009 Hearing of the Transportation
  Infrastructure Committee
• Summary of Testimony
• DOTs DBE Program is needed and should be
  expanded to include
• Improved bonding and insurance for DBEs
• Access to credit and lending
• Uniform Certification Program
• Congressional involvement/support/advocacy
• Assessment/survey to capture current situation
• COMTO Recommendations to Congress and the TI
  Committee
• Establish a National Uniform Certification
  Program
• Provide more government funding for DBE bonding
  certification
• Conduct a national survey for DBE w/focus on
  economic impact
• Establish a DOT Blue Ribbon Panel for DBE program
  (similar to DOTs internal TIGER Team)

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COMTO Web Portal
Convergence of Information for all Stakeholders
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COMTO DBE National ClearinghouseAn
Industry Management Tool
COMTO Web Portal
Functions/Benefits
DOT/RTA Policies/Procedures

• Coordination
• Compliance
• Monitoring
• Forecasting

• Multi-Modal
• Certification
• Pre-qualification

• Primes
• Joint Ventures
• PPP

• Title VI Reports
• Market Surveys
• Match Making
• RSS Bid Service

• UCPs

Increasing Capabilities As We Move Forward
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Transportation Summit - Economic RecoveryA
Ready To Go and Sustainable WorkforceHeld on
March 5, 2009

• Excellent strategy session!!
• Joint effort between COMTO Patton Boggs to
  develop recommendations for the workforce for
  stimulus (ready-to-go projects).
• Convened industry stakeholders/supporters
• Private Sector
• Congress
• Academia
• DOT and State Representatives
• Other Transportation Advocacy Groups APTA,
  AARTBA, AASHTO, ATU, and WTS
• COMTO is publishing white paper from Summit with
  recommendations
• Follow-on sessions later in the year

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2009 COMTO Events

• February
• NCDOT DBE Conference
• March
• Transportation Summit-Economic Recovery
• Launched Web Portal for DBEs
• Meeting with Faith Based Stakeholder
• Congressional Testimony
• Hampton Roads DBE Seminar
• July
• COMTO National Meeting Training Conference
  (July 11-14, 2009 in Dallas, TX)
• Summit Follow up seminar
• September
• Congressional Black Caucus and COMTO 15th Annual
  Transportation Braintrust

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Summary/Recommendations

• Workforce Issues
• Award grant to COMTO to develop the electronic
  process for grantees to submit their EEO4 Data
• Award grant to COMTO to partner with FAA to
  recruit ATCS
• Expand the FTA CITY collaborative to FAA and FHWA
  
• Give serious consideration to COMTO vetted
  individuals seeking to serve in President Obamas
  Administration
• DBE Issues
• Develop a Blue Ribbon panel for DBE issues
• COMTO National Meeting Training Conference
• Secretary LaHood deliver keynote at COMTO Opening
  Session at National Meeting Training Conference
  In Dallas on Monday, July 12, 2009

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• Moving the Nation