By: Diane Benjamin
I talked to a friend Sunday who has a son driving for Connect Transit. The drivers are expecting to receive notices this week of a January shutdown.
The minutes to the meeting held September 27, 2016 have been posted: http://www.connect-transit.com/documents/09-27-2016%20Regular%20Board%20Meeting%20Proceedings.pdf
These minutes show what was said during Public Comment. Eleven people wanted to speak, the Board suspended their 15 minute comment policy to allow all of them to speak. It was the right thing to do. Many of the comments were from riders unhappy with the changes – you can read them all at the link above. One guy who frequently speaks at Bloomington City Council meetings summarized what most of the speakers were feeling:
The September meeting listed an Executive Session on the Agenda to discuss “Personnel Matters”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zAZemF_qQuOUc3ckRxVGZfUWM/view
This addendum was added to the agenda: http://www.connect-transit.com/documents/9-27-16%20ADDENDUM1%20-%20Correction.pdf
This item is listed as a separate agenda item, but the minutes make no reference to compensation. If this was supposed to be discussed in Executive Session, it was already covered by “Personnel Matters”.
If the Board did vote on the General Manager’s Compensation during regular session, but the minutes do not reflect that vote, any action taken is nullified by the failure to record it.
There was no talk during the September meeting of looming financial problems. The Board did discuss doing a study as to why ridership keeps dropping.
One more item of note:
The Connect Transit website has a tab labeled Performance Dashboard. http://www.connect-transit.com/about/performance_dashboard.asp
Data is posted going back to April 2014. No data has been added to the site since April 2016.
The page compares data to the previous year. Why did they stop posting it?
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Why even bother to shut down the buses, it is all funny money anyway. A government shutdown is nothing more than extra paid vacation for the employees (they get backpay after money that doesn’t exist is miraculously found).
A true shutdown would mean lights out, everybody goes home and no salaries or benefits are paid.
Sorry folks. No money to drive these new empty busses all over town due to government waste.
This is what happens when $83K is spent on consultants. To heck with taking heed of the public who use the system.