As a transit rider and also an open government watchdog, I want to register my public displeasure before the March 4 Community Transit Board regular meeting (the login information is up at communitytransit.org/meetings), namely having committees of boardmembers, one just short of a quorum, meet to receive staff briefings.
There is no public observation of these briefings as per policy well before Chair Daughtry and CEO Ilgenfritz’s new tenures; but having these briefings including one on a service change two weeks ago just shy of one board member for opacity’s sake does not breed public trust. As this transit advocate fundamentally believes, transparency breeds trust, trust breeds confidence and confidence breeds ridership. To build back better and win back riders’ trust, we need the rhetorical warp speed of transparency to more ridership trust, confidence and ridership.
So I am asking please Community Transit Board Chair Daughtry to accept my dare at his first public meeting Thursday to make the motion to open the Community Transit Board committees to observation; not comment, just observation please.
State Rep. Emily Wicks’ House Bill 1329 is currently before the State Legislature to update the Open Public Meetings Act. One of the benefits of that bill is enshrining the right of public comment before a final vote. I ask for your support and that of Community Transit please. Helps when Community Transit Board Meetings became proof of concept for the ideas in ESHB 1329.
Joe A. Kunzler
Sedro-Woolley
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