Transcription of Trimet Leak
>>So uhm... I wanna be very clear about the fact that as a transit dependent person myself, as a proud member of Bus Riders Unite who also happens to work at Opal, uhm...We know where Trimet gets its money, and we pay attention to how they spend it. And it's very clear that Trimet loves to spend their money on expensive capital projects like the electronic fare system that's a 22 million dollar investment. And like this transit jail. We paid attention to when they were making this e-fare investment and we found really clear problems. And we identified those problems, and we pushed. Because we knew that this was gonna make transit less accessible for low-income people. And so we said, 'If you're gonna do this electronic fare thing,' which they had already decided, it was a forward on conclusion, 'at least make the system more accessible by introducing a low-income fare.' And Trimet had agreed. We sat through a public process with Trimet for them to agree. And then when their budget priorities came out for the following year, there were zero dollars in their budget for the low-income fare that we had all agreed that we needed. And there were eleven million dollars for this transit jail. And we understand that that comes from a bond and that they can only spend that money on capital improvements. But we-I mean bus riders don't want another transit police facility. You asked the ridership what they need, and they'll never tell you that Trimet should invest that much money in that kind of facility. It's about a need for buses, a need for bus stop safety, a need for improved service, and Trimet's using unrestricted dollars to pay the interest on the bond. So it's not unheard of that-overall, that they would have some community input in these decisions. And that really is the thing that we've been pushing for. That when they make these decisions, Bus Riders Unite is constantly having to dog them and go to their meetings and say 'what are you doing', because there's very little public input in what they do. And if there were more public input, if we actually had control over the budget that they've put out, if there was some type of community participatory budgeting process, then it wouldn't be a shock to us and they wouldn't have to push back so forcefully.
You know, you see on their Facebook they're saying, 'it's not a jail, we swear it's not a jail.' Like they'll admit when you ask them-I think they did another interview with a different KBOO statio-or uh, KBOO show where you know, the spokesperson pushed back really hard on the idea that it's a jail, but yes it has holding facilities. And pushed back really hard on the idea that it's interrogation but yes there are rooms to question people. And you know, that just speaks to the idea that they have this like, massive public relations machine that's willing to assert a very particular view of what they do instead of just doing what their ridership asks of them. This speaks to a level of uh, accountability that's missing from an agency that has an over a billion dollar budget and we want to see a robust, full accessible transit system. You know, we are not out to see the demise of Trimet at all. Our riders and our membership needs a robust, accessible, round-the-clock uhm, you know, transit system to get to work, to get to school, to get to the services that they-you know, folks need, and we want to fully participate in meaningful ways with major decisions. So we were you know, disappointed that you know, this is another project that they made a decision thinking that this is in the best interest of the community. I think they only are looking at a set-subset or riders. Sometimes we call them 'tourist riders', folks that you know, choose to ride because they have the options uh, to drive or not drive and they have you know, the financial means. And we support tourist riders, that's great, I just think there's a huge population of other riders that Trimet needs to really put into account when they make these big decisions.
>>Who is Trimet accountable to? Pardon my ignorance; I'm just sort of not sure.
>>Not many people. Uhm, as a government agency, they have a board of directors that's appointed by the governor. And so those what, five-six people, are solely accountable to the governor. And the governor can choose to keep or replace them. And while we're not necessarily advocating for some type direct election of board members, because that also comes with its own complications and you know, direct election can actually mean that you know, individuals with the most money end up elected. You know, it's very clear that the Trimet board isn't representative of people who regularly ride Trimet.
>>And I would say also the board is one decision-making body, but it really is ran like a corporation. And uhm, you know as a business model, I think both their you know, Newt, McFarland, and the folks that run the day-to-day operations have a lot power and they have a lot of say. And we actually encourage and would love to see Trimet's board pause every now and then and ask the harder questions around, 'was there community engagement', 'did you engage folks that are going to be directly impacted.' We offered that challenge up to the board to take up that responsibility and be more than just what some would say is a 'rubber stamp board,' and actually hold the day-to-day operations a little more accountable by asking the harder questions in public settings.
>>How do you think that change would come about? Pressure on Kate Brown or..?
>>Uhm, funny you said that. We actually worked a pretty broad coalition of folks that wanna see more accountability and actually drafted legislation that would change the make-up of the uh, of transit agencies of a particular size. None are say naming Trimet, but just in general I think transit agencies that grow to a particular size and reach should have representation on their boards of-from communities that are directly impacted so we actually were looking to expand the board make designated seats for uh, folks with disabilities, youth and student seat, and a transit dependent rider that uhm, actually you know depends on the services. We also identified a seat for uh, someone that actually works at Trimet so oftentimes drivers and riders are pitted against each other, we've been building relationships with riders because-well with drivers because you know, when drivers are safe makes riders safe. And when you know riders are safe, drivers are--
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