Commission approves Metro Transit Title VI update with 8% disparate-impact threshold

Connor Mountford, interim planning and scheduling manager for Metro Transit, briefed the commission on the required Title VI program update and proposed policy changes. Mountford explained the update is required every three years and described two central staff proposals: adding specific metrics (revenue hours and directional route miles) to the major-service-change policy, and raising the disparate-impact/disproportionate-burden threshold from the current 2 percentage points to 15 percentage points to align with a peer-agency median. "The title 6 program is a technical document which serves 2 general purposes," Mountford said, outlining that it reports past Title VI activities and establishes service policies for the coming three years.

Commissioners expressed concern that a jump from 2% to 15% would reduce the number of identified impacts on minority and low-income riders. Alder Denise pressed staff on what the change would mean empirically for Black and brown riders; staff said lifting the threshold would likely reduce the number of future findings but that mitigation under the existing 2% monitoring results would proceed. Connor and Metro General Manager Jamie Acton said staff would support a stepwise compromise; after deliberation the commission approved the Title VI program update with an 8% disparate-impact/disproportionate-burden threshold and asked staff to provide annual monitoring (a report card) to the commission. The motion carried by unanimous consent.