Template revised January 10, 2019.
COMMISSION
AGENDA MEMORANDUM
Item No. 10a
ACTION ITEM Date of Meeting January 28, 2025
DATE : December 30, 2024
TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director
FROM: David Tomporowski, Transportation Access Program Manager
Peter Lindsay, Assistant Director, Airport Operations – Landside
SUBJECT: SEA MOVES TMA Contracting Authority
Amount of this request: $5,000,000
Total estimated project cost:
$5,000,000
ACTION REQUESTED
Request Commission authorization for the Executive Director to authorize a 2-year contract with
three optional one-year extensions (for a maximum duration of 5 years) with a not-to-exceed
amount of $5,000,000 for a vendor to operate the airport’s Transportation Management
Association (TMA), also known as SEA MOVES, on behalf of the Port of Seattle.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Commission Resolution 3759 (adopted in July 2019) calls for the Port to establish a TMA to serve
non-Port, airport tenant employees with transportation resources and information on
commuting to and from work at the airport. Rather than establish a traditional TMA, which often
consists of a separate board and non-profit status, the Airport Division will incorporate the new
employee transportation program into the existing Landside Operations structure. Staff propose
procuring and hiring a contractor to operate the SEA MOVES program on behalf of the Port. To
operate a robust and fully accessible TMA service, staff recommend a dedicated, on-site model
at inception. This arrangement—hiring a contractor to operate a company’s employee commute
program—is a common industry practice.
A contract not to exceed five years (a 2-year contract with three optional one-year extensions) is
proposed. The total contract value is anticipated to not to exceed $5 million dollars over five
years. Initial funds were approved in the 2025 budget for this work. Requesting Commission
approval to begin procurement and contracting at this stage is critical to keep the Port on-track
to launch SEA MOVES as a formal program in 2025.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 10a Page 2 of 6
Meeting Date: January 28, 2025
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
JUSTIFICATION
There are thousands of individuals and hundreds of companies that work every day across the
SEA Airport campus in some capacity. These individuals all have different working hours, benefit
packages, living situations, and transportation needs. The transportation-related benefits
provided by the companies to their employees range from a full suite of parking and transit
benefits to none at all. Given this varied and diverse workforce, the Port of Seattle, as the airport
sponsor and operator, can lead as a consolidating resource and convening entity to expand
commute options for all airport employees. To that end, staff finalized SEA’s Commute Action
Strategy in Spring 2024 that recommended a delivery structure for these resources; namely, the
establishment of an SEA Airport Transportation Management Association (TMA).
TMAs are member-controlled organizations that typically serve a specific concentration of
employees by providing education, engagement and consulting services focused on
transportation and commuting support, usually with the broad goal of reducing the number of
employees commuting in single occupancy vehicles (i.e. driving alone). The core function of SEA
Airport’s TMA, known as SEA MOVES, is to serve as a centralized service provider for airport
tenants and employees who work across diverse industries and jobs, typically with a commute at
the beginning and end of their day. SEA MOVES will do this by harmonizing and universalizing
commute trip rider information and distributing it across multiple trusted communication
channels to reach workers where they’re at. However, it will also be available to administer
modal-specific initiatives, such as carpool incentives, expanded transit pass access, and active
transportation encouragement.
Hiring a contractor to run a company’s employee commute program is a common industry
practice; businesses in the Puget Sound region such as Expedia, Microsoft, and Google all employ
third party vendors to manage employee-facing commute programs. Providing TMA services
directly to airport employers and employees is a new line of business for the Port. As such, the
Port intends to employ the services and experience of a firm that specializes in embedding
themselves in a workplace and delivering programming and resources directly to employees. The
contract will be structured to ensure continuity over the start-up period (two years of services)
and provide opportunities to exit the arrangement if the Port would like to go in a different
direction (three optional one-year extensions).
The TMA shall be partially funded by a surcharge or program fee added to employee parking. The
purpose of the fee is to fund TMA programming that will be administered and available to all
airport employees via SEA MOVES. This arrangement is in alignment with federal airport funding
requirements and state law and provides a linkage between our employee parking program and
our employee commute trip reduction activities, similar to a traditional TMA.
Diversity in Contracting
The project team is working with the Diversity in Contracting department to establish a WMBE
aspirational goal associated with this contract per TMA’s scope efforts.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 10a Page 3 of 6
Meeting Date: January 28, 2025
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
DETAILS
Standing up, launching, and continually operating a new program—a robust, fully accessible TMA
that serves a 24/7, 365 workforce—requires a dedicated staff and budget to operate. The
proposed contract will provide for not just an on-site staff to be the face of SEA MOVES and run
the program day-to-day, but the resources to continually develop and ensure an effective,
trusted, and meaningful suite of commute programming. Principal-level and managerial
oversight, reporting and tracking of goals and metrics, technical support and data analysis,
management of vendor relationships, QA/QC, and communications support such as website
content management, promotional material creation, brand strategy and marketing, are all
potential duties of the contractor. Finally, this contractor will also be responsible for
administering the three modal-based initiatives of the TMA: a transit pass pilot program, a
carpool/vanpool incentive program, and an active-transportation encouragement program.
Scope of Work
The scope of services for the contracted staff at the airport will include staffing a program office,
providing trip planning assistance to employees and answering common commuting questions
(what transit routes serve the airport and when, what transportation benefits does my employer
provide, am I eligible for a reduced transit fare program, etc.), focus group and individual
interviews (sometimes referred to as motivational interviewing) with employees, providing
consulting services to airport employers on their own transportation benefits as it relates to
recruitment strategies, development and dissemination of a standardized material packet
containing commuting information for employers to provide their new hires, staffing support at
airport employer recruiting/hiring events, coordination with Port Jobs to present at their weekly
SIDA badge classes and other regular Port Jobs’ programming, record-keeping for audit and
evaluative purposes, and regular reporting on program metrics.
ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS CONSIDERED
Alternative 1 – No action – do not pursue contract and maintain the status quo.
Cost Implications: $0
Pros:
(1) Cost savings.
Cons:
(1) By not hiring a contractor to operate SEA MOVES, SEA Airport will not establish a TMA.
This is not the recommended alternative.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 10a Page 4 of 6
Meeting Date: January 28, 2025
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
Alternative 2 – Run the TMA internally with Port staff.
Cost Implications: varies depending on number of FTEs and assigned salary range.
Pros:
(1) Will allow for internal transportation demand management (TDM) subject-matter
knowledge and capacity building by a dedicated, permanent staff.
Cons:
(1) Additional FTEs are not approved or budgeted for in 2025.
(2) The time required to develop position(s), hire, onboard, and consult new staff would
delay TMA launch by as much as one year.
(3) A new position to operate the TMA day-to-day would not account for other necessary
“back-office” duties, such as communications; material and copy development; graphic
design; data analysis; reporting, monitoring, and metrics; vendor management;
strategic planning; etc.
This is not the recommended alternative.
Alternative 3 – Approve contracting authority as stated.
Cost Implications: approximately $2 million plus optional additional $3 million (total NTE contract
value of $5 million)
Pros:
(1) Hiring a vendor will provide a full complement of services beyond basic day-to-day
program staffing (“back-office” duties such as communications; material and copy
development; graphic design; data analysis; reporting, monitoring, and metrics; vendor
management; strategic planning; etc.)
(2) Hiring a vendor provides management flexibility to address emergent issues in a new
line of business.
(3) Engaging a subject-matter-expert vendor provides the opportunity to engage industry
expertise in a new area for Port of Seattle staff.
(4) Contract terms provide off-ramps if the program needs re-tooling.
Cons:
(1) May limit Port employee internal capacity building given that TMA staff will work for
the vendor.
This is the recommended alternative.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There is currently an SEA employee transportation program fee ($5 per month per card) assessed
on each monthly tenant employee parking card cost. The fee was first assessed in 2024 at $1 per
month per card; since initiation the monies have been held for anticipated use for SEA MOVES
Operations Planning work.
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 10a Page 5 of 6
Meeting Date: January 28, 2025
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
Cost
Estimate/Authorization Summary Capital
Expense
Total
COST ESTIMATE
Original estimate $0
$5,000,000
$0
AUTHORIZATION
Previous authorizations 0
0
0
Current request for authorization 0
$5,000,000
$5,000,000
Total authorizations, including this request 0
0
0
Remaining amount to be authorized $0
$5,000,000
$5,000,000
Annual Budget Status and Source of Funds
The SEA MOVES Vendor Contract is funded in the amount of $231,000 in the 2025 Aviation
division budget. If this request is approved, this budget amount would increase annually per the
contract for its duration. A portion of this contract would be funded by the $5 TMA fee that is
included in the monthly Employee Parking card. Projected revenues for 2025 are $755k and are
shown in the Future Revenues section of this memo.
Financial Analysis and Summary
Project cost for analysis $5,000,000 (5 years)
Business Unit (BU) Transportation Management Association (Org 3413)
within Landside Operations
Effect on business performance
(NOI after depreciation)
No additional revenue will be generated by this service.
However, a portion or all of this requested contract will
be funded by the TMA fee included in the monthly
Employee Parking card. TMA Revenue is projected to be
$755k in 2025, and are expected to increase in future
years.
IRR/NPV (if relevant) N/A
CPE Impact N/A
Future Revenues and Expenses (Total cost of ownership)
TMA future revenues based on potential changes in the airport tariff are as follows:
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS REQUEST
(1) Presentation slides
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS
November 19, 2024 – The Commission adopted Order 2014-13 to expand alternative
2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
TMA 1.00$ 5.00$ 5.50$ 6.00$ 6.50$ 7.00$ 7.50$
TMA Revenue 144,000$ 754,500$ 891,000$ 1,044,000$ 1,209,000$ 1,386,000$ 1,597,500$
Monthly Card Sales 12,000 12,575 13,500 14,500 15,500 16,500 17,750
COMMISSION AGENDA – Action Item No. 10a Page 6 of 6
Meeting Date: January 28, 2025
Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).
transportation options for airport workers through the SEA MOVES TMA
October 22, 2024 – The Commission was briefed on the SEA Airport Employee Transportation
Program, a work component of GTAP.
March 14, 2023 – The Commission was briefed on GTAP and TMA progress as part of the
Widen Arrivals Project presentation.
November 9, 2021 – The Commission was briefed on the Ground Transportation Access Plan
Roadmap as part of Widen Arrivals Project progression approval.
June 8, 2021 – The Commission conducted a study session on ground transportation.
July 9, 2019 – The Commission adopted Resolution 3759 creating a ground transportation
policy directive.
May 28, 2019 – Commission Resolution 3759, creating a ground transportation policy
directive, was introduced.
September 25, 2018 – The Commission received a staff briefing consisting of a presentation
and memo on ground transportation to the airport.
July 10, 2018 – The Commission conducted a study session on travel to and from SEA Airport.
