All posts by Joe "AvgeekJoe" Konzlar

Island Transit bus photo by author

A little Island Transit update…

First tomorrow at 0900 hours at the Island Transit Operations & Administration Building, 19758 SR 20, Coupeville will be a monthly Island Transit Board Meeting.  According to the meeting agenda, there will be public comment specifically on the Transit Development Plan and then general public comment on other items.  I have placed a request for the meeting audio from Island Transit before the close of business tomorrow – and have friends who might get some video as I have a bum right ankle to heal.

First and a half, I have read Island Transit Executive Director Martha Rose’s letter to Island Transit Board Members.  In Exec Director Martha Rose’s letter, she references the fact Paratransit will be stressed in South Whidbey and Island Transit “will be applying for a Consolidated Operating Grant so that we can get back to health financially. The applications are due into WSDOT by mid-November of this year. Awarded funds will be available effective July 1st of 2015.”    I’m sure the comments below on that application will be interesting… Mrs. Rose also said she expected a large crowd.  Island Transit Boardmember Jim Campbell also publicly wanted to have former Island Transit financial advisor Barbara Savory speak to the Island Transit Board.  Again, I’m truly sorry I cannot attend as I will be writing Saturday evening an editorial for Sunday morning on this Island Transit mess.

Second, in the past two weeks, several disturbing pieces of intelligence have came to my attention.  Been holding back not wanting to fixate on Island Transit.

• On July 31st, State Senators Barbara Bailey and Curtis King wrote the State Auditor’s Office to give tasking to the upcoming audit.  They reference an anonymous whistleblower letter full of rumor and innuendo plus a South Whidbey Record news report.  State Senator Bailey then goes on to say in a press release, “This is indicative of larger issues in our transportation system, where there is a complete lack of transparency and accountability. That is why I have asked the state auditor to perform an audit as soon as possible. In recent years, the state has provided over $9 million to Island Transit and the public must be assured that those funds are being used responsibly.”  In other words: Island Transit’s problems could be used to smear public transit systems in general.
• On August 12th, the Stanwood-Camano News reported, “Martha Rose, executive director of Island Transit, said she “absolutely will not resign,” despite allegations of mismanagement and calls that she step down.”  Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson said to the reporter seeking a statement on Island Transit like her two colleagues gave back on 4 August, “We’re hearing about a culture that does not allow scrutiny. I’m disappointed and disillusioned by the apparent lack of transparency.  It matters to a lot of people, and no personality is more important than that system.”  To tip my hand a bit about the aforementioned editorial… I agree with Island County Commish Helen Price-Johnson: “This is the public’s transit system … The public deserves a sustainable and dependable level of service and to have the credibility of Island Transit restored.”
• On August 19th, the Stanwood-Camano News reported on the ongoing State Auditor’s Office audit of Island Transit seeking to “find where $3 million of Island Transit’s reserves went and, more importantly, why no one allegedly knew the money was disappearing.”  State Auditor Troy Kelley is in receipt of multiple state legislator letters on this audit and wrote back he’d look into questions about, “whether funds were illegally or improperly used; whether there was adequate oversight from Rose and the board; whether aspects of the new facility are excessive in the context of and other comparable facilities; whether travel funds were used improperly; whether the agency is failing to maintain and update its fleet.”  Finally another tip of the editorialist hand in that I concur with Island County Commish Jill Johnson,  “If you’re cutting routes because you can’t cover the operating expenses, and now you’re in debt on top of that, how are you going to be able to afford it in a year?” (When Seattle Transit Blog gets a copy of all the letters, will post here.)

Chuckanut Park & Ride – Photo by AvgeekJoe

[Joe 2300 Hours note: Skagit Transit hyperlinks corrected.]

Recently Bruce Nourish wrote a fine piece on Spokane’s transit woes.  Woes perpetuated by the moneyed interests of that fine city based on prejudicial myths of transit users.

I see some similarities in my Skagit County – we too have a ruling elite to the point one family is about to marry massive economic power with sizable political power, we too have all the mainstream news owned by another family with declining resources for muckraking government, and we used to have a transit hub in the downtown of Burlington at the Cascade Mall which was good for commerce.  Now we have courtesy of the Washington Department of Transportation a Park & Ride at the north of Burlington for a transit hub linking Skagit Transit Routes 300 between Sedro-Woolley & east Burlington, 80X to Bellingham, 90X to Everett and 208 to Burlington & Mount Vernon shopping. See an aerial view below:

View post on imgur.com

Granted, the Park & Ride is convenient to drop folks off, to pick up buses and next to Interstate 5 with 369 parking slots.  But the previous hub was the Cascade Mall with vast amounts of parking plus lighting & security cameras that did not cost Washington State taxpayers $11,852,000.

Now… there is no restroom with all the sanitary issues that entails, there are few places to shop within a walking distance, and there is no commons area that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer – all of which the Cascade Mall provided the public.  There is only now apathy, a lit bus shelter, video cameras, and 369 parking slots.  There is only each Skagit Transit user’s silence to blame – don’t let this happen to you.

To invigorate any effort to be proactive perhaps consider the reply to my recent comments into the Skagit Transit 6-year Plan asking for a restroom and a temperature-controlled commons area: “There are no plans to add facilities to existing park and rides and no change will be made to the 6-year plan to address restroom facilities. … Bathroom facilities at un-staffed park and rides are commonly vandalized and can even become a safety and security risk. The high rate of vandalism and associated cost makes the provision of restroom facilities at the park and rides prohibitively expensive.”  I spoke up too late, not while this facility was in the public planning stages where proposing a public restroom and the recruiting a Starbucks franchise to the Chuckanut Park & Ride would have been so immensely helpful.  The nearest espresso stand is instead across a very busy boulevard with no public restroom or place to stay warm.

Put bluntly as so many transit users – including yours truly – were apathetic during the planning process for this $11.8 million facility; transit planning travesties like this occur.  For too long, moneyed interests and entrenched bureaucrats in cushy jobs have taken advantage of transit users’ apathetic unwillingness to speak up and be treated like customers.  Only when we transit users band together and reply as proud customers of transit will we make things right as in business: the customer is almost always right.

As a vacationer who uses Amtrak Cascades whenever possible to get out of Skagit to and from aviation geek (avgeek) events as able, figured I’d write you about the Amtrak Cascades experience plus share some of my photos as appropriate.  Now getting a ticket is rather easy – just go online and order them or either printout at home or pick up at a train station kiosk.  Or use a kiosk at a train station to order and printout – and hope there’s a vacancy.  Just like getting on an airplane… without the TSA.  Yes, this maze:

Once you board, you’ll be assigned a seat.  Rarely by choice unlike an airline, but you are not cramped looking out a tiny window like a Q400’s for instance:

You may be – and are – paying for speed & altitude when using Alaska Airlines which has its own benefits such as a sunrise view that cannot be beat.  But on Amtrak Cascades once seated, you get to relax, sit back and either read, work or read or play on an electronic device, or if the WiFi works cruise the Internets while on the rail.  No safety briefing to suffer through or cramped lavatory to try to use.  Just sit back and relax – and hope no noisy baby is stuffed into business class.  Especially since whomever sold Amtrak Cascades the leather seats pictured below ought to advertise where to pick one of them up for Christmas!

Say you get thirsty or hungry, you can walk over to the Bistro Car and pick something up – no need to find a fast food joint along the road or wait for a flight attendant’s cart as there’s a Dining Car.  Business Class customers get a $3 coupon against their purchases.  You can get a burger and a soda pop like this:

Every passenger car also has rather nice views.  Mostly either of farms or small towns along the way.  Good way to enjoy the view through rather big windows.

There’s also seating for groups of four to sit together and either play together or chat (preferably) quietly.  A great way for a family to leave the driving to others… and have quality family time.

Not to mention save on the costs of operating an automobile… which with the cost of gas nearing $4 as the Seattle average plus the costs of maintaining & operating a car are no small matters to consider.  Perhaps try the Skagit Transit trip calculator to see how much you’d save annually – especially if you can chuck the car during the week and come vacation time too!

That said, when you get off you just wait for the conductor to help you disembark and if need be grab luggage and/or a bicycle from the luggage car.

Off you go!  Hope to see you on Amtrak Cascades:

See, North by Northwest (NbyN) Zero Five on Island Transit is currently being built and production resources for Zero Five are being taken from NbyN Zero Three on Amtrak Cascades being such a wonderful service.  But once you see & hear Zero Five with all the intel products, you’ll understand why.

What’s Zero Four you might ask – well that’ll be all about Paine Field.  Waiting on an e-mail sent to riders-AT-commtrans.org yesterday with the subject line, “Question Re: Route Planning Input”.  Hopefully by posting here I’ll get Community Transit to reply to my e-mail in a timely manner (i.e. less than 24 hours Monday thru Friday).

So I shall make this a request line.  What would you me to tell you about – like perhaps how useful the Seafair shuttle was or how Skagit Transit is getting along or a 1,000 word rant on Washington State Ferries?  You tell me.  This Island Transit fiasco cannot be my only focus – it’d be too depressing.

Requests Please.

Good question.

The Stanwood-Camano News reported 5 days ago they were not told during the loss of the Camano-to-Everett Connector about the depth of Island Transit’s fiscal problems, “All this was developing even as Rose and the board were talking about cutting the Everett Connector, but no one mentioned it in interviews.”  The same allegation has been made by the Whidbey Newsgroup.  If I may quote their syndicated newsstory:

A reporter contacted Rose and a couple of IT’s board members about budget problems a month ago, but none of them mentioned the impending layoffs, widespread route cuts or that the finance director was terminated because of the cash flow problems.

Rose told the reporter that the “county connector” in Skagit County was being modified and Everett connector canceled due to cuts in state transportation funding. She now says she didn’t realize at that time that deep cuts would be necessary to right the ship.

These cuts were promised to only last a year in many public statements.  However, Oak Harbor City Councilman Jim Campbell who serves on the Island Transit board made a statement at the 6 August Oak Harbor City Council meeting that should trouble many of us.  About 1:52 into a YouTube clipping are the assertions the rescue plan has not been presented to the Island Transit Board as a board and will require longer to as Martha Rose would say, “come out of the clouds in about a year.”  Therefore exists the serious, genuine question does misinformation from Island Transit continue – which makes me individually take the editorial position we just might find more fiscal booby traps and possibly similarities to Enron’s downfall.  Below is my attempt to embed the video:

There also has been the admission that 1:27 into the YouTube clip of what the open government community calls ‘serial meetings’ about this plan.  Having each board member meet with the Executive Director to talk about a plan very much in the public interest behind closed doors is at the least impugnable.  At the most, against the Washington State Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), RCW 42.30.  Hopefully the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) will investigate.  After I hit publish and address any grammatical errors here, will fire off a head’s up to my SAO contact.

Finally mark the date, time and location: Friday, August 22, 2014, at 9:00 AM at the Island Transit Operations & Administration Building, 19758 SR 20, Coupeville, WA is the next Island Transit Board Meeting coupled to – and please swallow before you read this – “A Public Hearing to receive input on Island Transit’s Six-Year Transit Development Plan. … The regularly scheduled Monthly Business Meeting will be held following the conclusion of the Public Hearing”.  Six-Year Transit Development Plan now?  Seriously, when we do not know if Island Transit faces the threat of extinction Island Transit’s going to plan 6 years ahead?

Being I’d promised 500 words or less, stopping here.  Sincerely welcome and appreciate your comments!  I will do my best to reply within 12 hours or less, thank you!

Hi there!

I’ve figured it’s time for Northwest Washington State to have a seat at the table.  You may know me as “AvgeekJoe from Skagit County ” from the comment threads and as a regular contributor to the Seattle Transit Blog Flickr feed as well.

You may also know I lean somewhat right in my beliefs.  You can rest assured I may be friends with Washington Policy Center staffers, but I’m not here to spew talking points or troll.  I do believe however that political biases are best served out in the open.

One of those biases is for a strong, sustainable transit system allowing people to live where they need to live.  We in Northwest Washington State currently enjoy a County Connector System between Snohomish, Skagit, Island and Whatcom Counties.  I say currently as that depends on start-up grants and on if Island Transit can survive the recent dire straights Island Transit HQ has put a legendary transit agency into.

The Whidbey Examiner has reported in part on the Island Transit fiscal crisis:

Martha Rose, director of Island Transit, said she fired Financial Manager Barbara Savary in May after she disclosed that the agency didn’t have the money to pay $135,000 in bills.

Rose said she was dumbfounded to discover that Savary hadn’t been running the monthly cash flow analysis for years. She said the simple, internal report is not only a vital part of the job, but would have alerted the agency to cash flow concerns years ago.

Island Transit is an independent agency overseen by a board of directors. It offers fare-free transit and is funded by a nine-tenths of 1 percent sales tax and grants. The operating budget for this year is $12.2 million.

Unbeknownst to her, Rose said, Savary was dipping into investments as expenses outpaced revenues for years on end. Rose said she found unpaid bills in Savary’s desk after she was gone.

A YouTube video – clearly set to the soundtrack of the James Bond movie Skyfall – has been posted of the Island County Commissioners’ Monday meeting where further revelations came forward.  On that YouTube video are statements pledging new accountability, a look into the fiscal sustainability of Island Transit and finally in the last 60 seconds “financial statements” made to the board were clearly “incorrect”.

Now I’d rather write about the great transit network we have here, complete with dang “selfies” of me using transit to see the great aviation community we have in Northwest Washington State.  But I believe you should know what’s going down up here as it’s going to color debates & dialogue on transit in this state.  Already the Washington Policy Center has written up a note,  noting, “More tax money from the state is not the solution to fix the financial mess at Island Transit. Better budget management and financial practices could have reduced the pain felt by communities across Island County. … Island Transit officials should better manage public tax dollars to rebuild the public trust and restore reliable and efficient bus service.”

Ultimately I hope all of us in the transit community heed these thoughts from Whidbey Newsgroup publisher Keven R. Graves that, “citizens need to reclaim ownership of their taxpayer-funded agencies, attend meetings, ask hard questions and push for tougher open records laws that don’t allow agencies to drag their heels and play games.  Take back your voice and demand greater accountability of government employees before things start going wrong.”  I would add when there are opportunities for transit advocates to raise your voice… please use up that First Amendment to the US Constitution of free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly and petition the government for a redress of grievances – key freedoms our troops and First Responders fight for every day.