Number 2014-40
12-23-14

Subject: Region 8 Staff Changes for the State of Utah

Date: December 23, 2014

Dear Grantees:

This bulletin is to inform you of changes being made in the assignment of staff responsibilities in the Region 8 Federal Transit Administration. David Beckhouse, Team Lead for Planning and Program Development is now the new Deputy Regional Administrator for Region 8. *Please note: David will continue to provide assistance for Planning and Program Development until his position is backfilled.

These changes are effective as of the date of this bulletin and are being made to improve efficiencies in workload and to better serve you, our customers. A general overview of the changes is presented below. Please note that in some cases we have assigned both development and oversight responsibility to the same FTA employee.

For all Operations and Program Management activities please note geographic, project or grantee specific assignments as shown below:

Donna Douville is the Team Leader for Operations and Program Management (720-963-3332,Donna.Douville@dot.gov).

Melanie Choquette (Melanie.Choquette@dot.gov, 720-963-3322):

• All Grantees
• Utah Transit Authority: Provo-Orem grant development and oversight
• Utah Department of Transportation: grant development and oversight
• Utah Department of Transportation: State Safety Oversight Grant development and oversight.

Jennifer Stewart (Jennifer.Stewart@dot.gov, 720-963-3317):

All Utah Tribal Grantees: grant development and oversight

Operations and Program Management activities include:

• Attending state, triennial, procurement, and financial reviews
• Leading or attending statutory quarterly reviews for New Starts projects
• Checking Milestone Progress Reports (MPRs) and Financial Status Reports (FSRs)
• Managing FTA Program Management Oversight Consultants (PMOCs)
• Grant Revisions and/or Budget Modifications
• Grant Closeout activities
• Incidental use and property disposal requests
• Bus disposals
• Property Acquisition

For all Planning and Program Development activities please note geographic, project or grantee specific assignments as shown below:

*The Team Lead position for Planning and Program Development is currently vacant.
Please contact David Beckhouse (720-963-3306, David.Beckhouse@dot.gov).

Kristin Kenyon (Kristin.Kenyon@dot.gov, 720-963-3319)

• Program development and grant approvals for all urbanized are grantees, excluding Utah Transit Authority Provo-Orem project
• Mountain Accord
• Joint Development
• DOT-HUD-EPA Livability Partnership activities

Larry Squires (Larry.Squires@dot.gov, 720-963-3305)

Coordinating role for Statewide and Metropolitan Planning approvals

Planning and Program Development activities include:

• Project development and grant approvals
• Grant amendment development and approvals
• Statewide and Metropolitan Planning approvals
• Planning Certification Reviews and Statewide Planning Findings
• National Environmental Policy Act review and approval
• Unified Planning Work Programs
• Coordinating the evaluation and approval of New Starts and Small Starts projects

For all Civil Rights activities:

Kevin Osborn (Kevin.Osborn@dot.gov), 720-963-3341

Civil Rights responsibilities including Title VI, DBE and ADA
Service and Fare Equity Analysis

For all Legal questions and/or activities such as Charter, Buy America, Incidental Use, Agreements, School Bus:

Jenny Barket (Jenny.Barket@dot.gov), 720.963.3317

For questions related to set up in the electronic grant making system, TrAMS/TEAM, please contact:

Cheryl Schlis (Cheryl.Schlis@dot.gov), 720.963.3349 or,
Terry Gonzales (Terry.Gonzales@dot.gov), 720.963.3301

Thank you for your assistance in implementing these changes. Please contact me at 720-963-3320 if you have any questions regarding this workload re-distribution.

Sincerely,

Linda M. Gehrke
Regional Administrator