Members of the Interagency Transportation Equity Advisory Committee spent a major portion of the March 12, 2025 meeting refining how the committee will organize its work for 2025, including the role of ad hoc subcommittees, the option to appoint subject‑matter experts (SMEs), and a timeline for producing a formal vision and mission statement on transportation equity.

The conversation revisited three ad hoc subcommittees formed in 2024 — Safety & Climate; Housing, Infrastructure & Broadband; and Walkability, Disability & Complete Streets — and staff noted current capacity to support up to three ad hoc subcommittees. Members urged clearer objectives and measurable deliverables for any subcommittee the committee continues or forms.

Several members and staff framed the trade-offs between larger subcommittees, smaller subject-matter teams and the committee’s full deliberative process. Staff recommended using two subject‑matter experts to draft language, with the resulting draft returned to the full EAC for deliberation and final approval. In that discussion Martha Armas Kelly, who previously led the safety and climate subcommittee work in 2024, and Carrie Akimi Hernandez volunteered to serve as the two SMEs to prepare a draft. Committee staff indicated no formal action was required at the meeting to begin that drafting work.

Members emphasized specific topics they want visible in the vision and mission draft, including physical and digital accessibility, walkability and Complete Streets implementation, climate and safety planning, and attention to funding and first/last‑mile strategies. Disability and accessibility consultant Peggy Martinez urged explicit language on accessibility: “I do think that it might be good for us to include the word physical and digital accessibility,” she said during the session. Members also flagged the master plan for aging and the need to address transit access for older adults.

Staff proposed a timeline: SMEs will prepare an initial draft for committee review, and staff recorded an informal target that the full committee review a final draft at or before the July meeting cycle (the committee schedule includes May 15 and a July 31 meeting). Staff noted that any work by SMEs would be brought back to the full committee for discussion and that final adoption would occur only through the committee’s regular meeting process.

Ending
The committee left the meeting with a process path: (1) two SMEs draft a proposed vision and mission, (2) staff circulate the draft to EAC members for comment, and (3) the full committee reviews and considers formal adoption at a future meeting, with staff support for posting and public notice as required.