By: Diane Benjamin
Definitive proof the Connect Transit Connect to the Future working group is wasting their time comes from the words spoken by member and Connect Transit Board member Judy Buchanan. Agreeing at the last Board meeting to purchase 35 foot electric buses for the next 5 years confirms it.
Go back to the August 19, 2019 Bloomington City Council meeting. The Connect Transit General Manager Issac Thorne gave a glowing presentation before the Council got to ask questions.
Start by listening to the exchange between Donna Boelen and Issac Thorne at 1:37:19. Eventually Thorne admits they are going to buy the 35 foot electric buses.
At 1:43:45 Jeff Crabill asks if there are any limitation on what the Working Group can discuss, including the size of the buses. Judy Buchanan responds at 1:44. She claims the Working Group may make recommendations about the size.
Since Judy and the rest of the Board already voted to buy new buses for the next 5 years, it is immaterial what the Working Group says!
Conned again folks.
Chris Koos has refused to appoint a citizen to the empty Normal seat on the Connect Transit Board until the Working Group is done. Both Renner and Koos have their people in place on the Board now. This looks more like an attempt to jam through as much spending as possible before smarter people get elected. The Working Group recommendations will mean nothing. They will be led to recommend letting Connect tax you themselves.
The people that need bus service and have no alternative transportation will continue to be ignored. A lot of the tragedy that is Connect Transit lies with them.
The Workgroup members are pawns to pacify the voices who were advocating for the ADA, elderly, and lower income individuals in our community. The only recommendations Connect will allow come out of this “shamgroup” is big buses and give Connect more money. I imagine the members feel used, manipulated and lied to.
They are not pawns but part of an organized yes club that has been present in this community for years. It is a planned condensing of local power to keep decision making in the hands of a small group of people so they can control what goes on in the community to protect their personal interests.
That will be on display Monday night
Imagine the type of parent who serves on the Connect Board and uses her son as pawn on the working group. I oppose mom shaming, but Julie Hile is disgusting.
Amen, sister!
What’s even worse is Chris Koos’ playing along. The only question is does McCurdy and Hile control Koos or does Koos control McCurdy and HIle? Whichever it is all parties agree Normal is better off without representation on the Connect Board than with it. How else do we explain a one year vacancy?
It’s hard to know who owns who. Hile is a consultant paid to say more government spending and bigger government is the solution, irrespective of the problem. Koos has her on speed dial to speak at public comment to cancel out any sane, rational speakers. It’s a cozy relationship. Meanwhile, McCurdy (“Bikey Mikey”) is a community (dis)organizer via Bike BloNo and Connect Transit, while running interference for Koos via his ivory tower at WGLT. Another cozy relationship.
The Broads (or Hile-Broad if you prefer) are political retreads from Connecticut. They are East Coast political elitists that frankly look at this area as populated by a bunch of corn pone rubes. Bob Broad is an English professor at ISU that uses his free time to organize political demonstrations in the tradition of NYC politics. His wife uses government to make money through her consulting firm that panders to government. They are social buddies of both mayors and run in the same social circles. They would like nothing better than to turn this area into a perversion of their political views. After they get done with their dirty deeds here and make all the money they can, they’ll likely sell their house and move to some liberal haven on the East Coast amongst smarter people than us.
And it’s SAD that ALL these folks always bring up “sustainability”! CT is about as sustainable as raising cranberries in the Gobi desert..
I PREDICT that the “electric wonders” will be gone in 5 years due to unmaintainable components..
Otherwise WHY would CA be getting rid of them?
The elites at Connect have ignored and deceived the public. They have no respect for taxpayers. They have turned their backs on the disabled, low income, and Veterans in B/N.
They seem to have no sympathy nor remorse for what they have done to our most vulnerable and to our public transportation system.
When Mark Teritilli becomes mayor, his first item of business should be firing the Connect Board, Director, COO and anyone else involved in this public disgrace.
I hope these individuals realize unless they begin to put the needs of the community before the wants of Koos and Renner they will be looking for new jobs in a year and a half.
Let me be clear, here, I do not have the knowledge of an Einstein, but a little “common sense” will work here. Transits, almost always empty to two or three passengers on a Big bus, is tearing up intersections and doing infrastructure damages. Now Heaven forbid, anyone looking at smaller capacity bus’s as a way to decrease costs and operational expense, be allowed to promote that idea. Why that has to be against every law known to man. I count my blessings everyday as I do not live in Blm-Nrml.