Summary Report
October 7, 2011
The following report is not fiction; strange and bizarre, but all true. We were there and can pass a lie detector test if needed. Call it an OMOT version of “BELIEVE It or NOT”. Kudos to Mike Dubick for looking out for the public. He noticed that the board was being asked to approve board minutes from Dec 2010. They were going to be approving about 8 months of overdue minutes (one of the months in the middle was missing?). He requested that the staff be more timely in providing the minutes since they are and should be in public record as soon as possible. Thank you Mr. Dubick for your logic; wish more of the Board had access to logic and common sense.
OMOT would like to suggest all the meetings be televised. Anyone can see that the minutes, even when they do appear, are not a true verbatim transcript but an abridged report that tends to favor LTD staff and goals and minimize any public participation. To televise would allow everyone to see and hear tonal inflections and not make the public have to trek to meetings. The viewers could then decide who is who and what is what from the comfort of their couch. Please remember we do not get paid to sit in meetings.
The report was from Point to Point Solutions and it was a great one! With much smiling and enthusiasm, it was presented as a great triumph. LTD received a $55,000 grant from ODOT to promote and study carpooling. Results of program: LTD distributed approx $4,138.75 in gift certificates to new and existing carpoolers who logged 10 trips. LTD spent $21,666.72 just to administer that little program. Board member Doris Towrey was very pleased with the end result of a calculated savings of $12,575.21 in fuel. Towrey said she loved numbers and wanted the TV stations notified. She forgot to notice that the ODOT grant allowed for $11,000 (20% of 55,000) to administer the entire grant amount. LTD spent $21,666.72on just that small program so they had to pull $10,666.72 out of the Point to Point budget. Good news is they have over $38,000 of the grant left, which is not for administrative costs. If they have the same rate of success, it will only cost $180,000 more in admin to make that last $39,861.25 disappear. Perhaps Ms. Towrey needs a calculator for that last bit. Oh, if you actually read the entire report, 31% of the enrolled people failed to fill out the pre-entry survey so the end data recovered was junk. My favorite quote from this report: Page 51 "From a budgetary perspective, the Carpool Incentive Program was able to exceed its goal of VMT/VMR reinforced using only 47% of projected program costs." Yup they actually printed that! Guess someone predicted even higher admin costs? P.S. Data on page 42 of board packet conflicts and says you saved 12,575.2 gallons of fuel when calculations in the chart on page 49 shows it is actually 3353.4 gallons.
Board member Gary Gillespie stayed in character. At last month’s Board meeting he said that LTD should not pay attention to elected officials since they are just trying to get elected. He thought the LTD Board and Staff should go to the planners and City Managers and ignore elected input. So after another month of thought, he had his brilliant observation for this month. He is concerned and is frustrated that LTD cannot just do what they want and are not in control of their own destiny. They have to answer to so many people and other local agencies! It is just not fair.
Duh. Mr. Gillespie, of the unelected LTD board, wants to have full control so he would have to get approval from no one? What else you want Mr. Gillespie- $94 million in your bank account and unlimited Power of Eminent Domain? And your third wish would be?
Tom Schwetz gave another glowing report that shows LTD does things better than Tri Met. He claims Tri -Met contacts no one on planned service routes until the projects are fully funded. He nearly dislocated his shoulder patting himself on the back. LTD has had 300 meetings with people on the West Eugene EmX Extension in the 4 years they have been working on it (that would be an average 75 per year and probably includes multiple visits to the same property owner). By the way he was carrying on, you would think they had never promised to meet with all 800-1200 property and business owners before submitting for the Small Starts $94 million grant on Sept 12th. Cossette Reese had, in prior public meetings and Board meetings, stated they would meet with all affected property owners. LTD made a whole list of property owners and said she and staff were diligently notifying and meeting with people. Guess a postcard was all they needed. I guess you may meet them at their office when they close your driveway.
Mr. Vobora, Director of Service Planning, did not have much to say. I am not sure, but he may have been benched for this meeting.
Tom Schwetz had a double feature. He had another grant they had to spend. So, LTD hired CH2M Hill to help waste funds. The CH2M guy was not too helpful, or maybe he was way more educated than this observer. But thank our lucky stars, Tom quickly cleared up everything. Let’s all get on this make believe bus and pretend it did not go to Ferry Street Bridge, but straight to the FUTURE! In that future, 2021, Lane County would not have 320,000 people but 400,000 bus hungry inhabitants. Eugene would have $7.00 a gallon gas so EVERYONE would ride the bus! So in the hypothetical world, what would the Board members suggest LTD do? Yes this is all true, it really happened, Believe it or not. They had two staff taking notes on easels. Tom was asking if the Board members did their homework problems. Tom could not seem to get the participation he wanted and many confused looks were exchanged. Some stuff was written on the two easels. The exercise just kind of ended with no conclusions. I would love to know what this exercise cost us taxpayers. Let’s see, two easels, two pens, CH2M Hill guy, Tom Schwetz time, misc staff time. Hopefully only $100,000, but if the prior Point To Point presentation is any comparison .........
The CH2M Hill guy went home, still smiling. Earth to Tom: Try reality next time in 2021. Gas $7.00 a gallon, LTD millions in the hole on underfunded pensions, LTD millions in hole on underfunded OPEB benefits, unfriendly business climate and slow growth policy causing severe lack of jobs in Eugene, and therefore, a less than 0.5% annual growth in county population.
Pension Plan: the Board was approving a new pension plan for new Admin hires; much less than the current plan cost. Interesting- not one board member asked why they did not fund the current employee health benefits costs and pension in the fiscal year the expense was incurred. Surprisingly, no one asked why they let the deficits grow and told the FTA they were in good financial health? Why did they not have any policy in place to insure it would never fall below proper funding levels? OMOT is now considering funding a grant for basic calculators for all Board and staff members. It’s possible LTD is already applying for 5307 Federal funds for calculator battery replacements.
My favorite part. Public input. First, an "elite sports car shop" owner asked if the board would put him on the payroll since he attended so many meetings and read so much transit data. They could have, but he asked too many questions they could not answer.
Next, a man read a letter for a lady from Springfield that asked LTD not to drive the bus down her street 84 times a day to turn it around. She was concerned for safety of children and thought the light side street overlay would not stand up to the wear and tear of heavy bus.
The final lady was the sweetest little old lady you have ever met. She had a neat handwritten notepaper filled on both sides. She stated that she gave up her car 20 years ago when her husband died. She formerly had a bus stop on her corner but no more since EmX came on in January. She could no longer do her church volunteer work easily, and was too tired if she had to walk. She stated she went to the Oakway Mall once and it took her 80 minutes one way; so, she had the eyeglasses mailed to her because she could not think of returning to the store. She uses Ride Source some now, but misses her freedom. She stated she felt like she had aged 10 years since the January implementation of the new EmX. You could have heard a pin drop during her talk and she repeatedly apologized for complaining. Hope LTD considers this issue of EmX: less stops further apart does not equal basic bus service. Sure will be interested in how much of this makes it into public record.
You would think the Board would think it their responsibility to look at a LTD financial statement or performance report. None were discussed and none found on the LTD website. Not updated since May and June. LTD wants the EmX expansion but sure doesn't want you to see the increase in maintenance costs that come with 60 ft buses nor the increase in admin costs while they are negotiating with the providers of service, the bus drivers.
Public records are apparently not too public right now. Don’t forget to sign the petition- and pass on the link to friends and family. http://www.petitiononline.com/EmX2010/petition.html
