Approve and authorize the County Administrative Officer to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in substantially the form attached to this staff report regarding the Sacramento Area Council of Governments Regional State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Regional Set-Aside Funding. (No general fund impact) (Lindbo/Riddiough)

Approve and authorize the County Administrative Officer to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in substantially the form attached to this staff report regarding Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) Regional State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Regional Set-Aside Funding.

Adopting the attached MOU will include Yolo County as a “Member Agency" (as defined in Attachment A) that has agreed to work cooperatively together with the other Yolo County SACOG Member Agencies regarding the proportional suballocations of the Yolo County Intra-County Funding in upcoming STIP funding cycles administered by SACOG.

Background

SACOG administers the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) for Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties.  The STIP is a competitive grant program that focuses on providing funding for road maintenance, improving safety, access to mobility, and economic development.

SACOG is revising the distribution of STIP funding allocations in their upcoming biennial Regional Funding Round.  One of the new STIP funding programs is called “Intra-County Funding.”  By default, this funding pool will be an intra-county competitive program (i.e., in this case, for all SACOG Member Agencies within just Yolo County), where the local agencies will only compete against other agencies within their county for their respective county’s allocated STIP funding.

However, SACOG has permitted each member county to consider alternative distribution methods for the Intra-County Funding instead of the default, traditional competitive method.

Over the past year, local Member Agencies (Cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland, Yolo Transportation District, Unitrans, Yolo County) have worked cooperatively together to determine a proportional method to distribute the Intra-County Funding, so that each agency would receive certain STIP funding for their agency’s use.  In past SACOG funding rounds, some agencies may not have competed well enough with their grant funding applications to score high enough to receive funding awards.  This approach will ensure each Member Agency can count on at least receiving a STIP funding award in the amount determined by their agency’s population and maintained center line miles, or by a simple suballocation percentage.  The amount that each agency will have available for their use in the upcoming funding round is shown in Exhibit B to the attached MOU.

Funding may also be banked from round to round by an agency to build up dollars for a larger, future project.  There is also the ability to coordinate with other Yolo County Member Agencies to trade or share allotments each round, if collaborating agencies so desire.

The attached MOU includes all edits from Member Agencies received as of April 2, 2025 and no further edits are expected. In the event a Member Agency does propose an additional change. However, staff will review the proposed edit(s) with the Office of the County Counsel prior to finalizing the MOU for signature by the CAO. Any substantive changes will be presented to the Board for approval prior to execution.

SACOG
SACOG Yolo County Member Agencies
The proposed SACOG Yolo County Member Agency coordination effort and the proportional distribution scenario was presented at the February 20, 2025, Committee on Capital Investments Meeting.
County Counsel has reviewed the MOU as to form.