[Colorado-Talk] RTD Board Shakeup
Julie Reiskin
jreiskin at ccdconline.org
Thu Mar 28 14:14:58 UTC 2024
Here are the comments CCDC submitted to sponsors on the most recent
draft-the documents are attached
Good Afternoon Nicholas and Representatives
CCDC appreciates changes that have been made to address our many concerns
with this bill. Here is some input on the questions you asked in the
proposal. While we appreciate and agree that there needs to be attention
to those of us that require transit, a good transit system will only work
when there are choice riders as well. We would like there to be attention
to people that would use transit. This might mean younger people that are
environmentally conscious such as urban dwellers, bike enthusiasts, as well
as aging people who may be ready to drive less. People choosing to
live in cities are more likely to want to use transit. At the DOTI
transition town there were over 100 people there from Denver, many of whom
are young professionals living in Denver who said they would love to use
transit more regularly but would need it to run more often. They are also
a demographic that should be included.
1) Section 3: The sponsors welcome additional language to strengthen
accountability to disproportionately impacted communities and
transit-dependent riders.
- Any place it says race and gender it should also say disability.
- At least one of the appointed members, preferably a DRCOG one, should
be someone who relies on transit 100% of the time or at least chooses to
use transit as their primary means of transportation.
- DRCOG appointees MUST be confirmed by the Senate. They also MUST be
willing to be accountable to meet with members of the community as needed
and their contact information must be public. We would also like anyone
from DRCOG involved to go through anti-ableism training.
2) Section 16: In this area, the sponsors are open to hearing specific
approaches to improve employee retention in addition to training.
- The biggest barrier to employee retention is safety. The state should
provide additional security resources to RTD if they want to retain
drivers. There are many fewer conflicts during the free fare months so
funding to make this last more months or year round could also help. But
the real need is for much more uniformed security.
- The issue is not training, RTD has a fairly robust training program.
RTD has a lot of disability rights and disability cultural competency
training in their program. We would hate to lose this. If CDOT has
anything we are not aware of what it is.
- Unfortunately USDOT license rules will not allow anyone to get a CDL
if they test positive for marijuana which is a problem in our state.
3) Accountability and budget transparency: These are good standards for
all governments, and we would love to see the state do something similar,
especially around transparency in developing budget proposals. We request
that there be a requirement for public involvement that specifically
targets both transit reliant communities (seniors, disabled, low-income)
AND people who do not use transit but would be willing to do so such as
downtown and tech center workers, teens, young professionals, bikers, etc.
in the process.
4) Board reform: The sponsors welcome any specific feedback on how the
board composition could be improved to adequately represent
disproportionately impacted communities and transit dependent riders.
- One of the appointed positions from the Governor and DRCOG should be
someone that uses transit full time.
- See earlier comments about DRCOG appointees. We would like anyone
involved with DRCOG and transportation to go through anti-ableism training.
- Do not allow board business with a quorum that only is half of the
people that show up. There should be a way to replace appointees that
do not attend 85% of all meetings including committee meetings. That
is a recipe for gamesmanship..scheduling meetings at times you know there
is a conflict, then rushing decisions. It should be a typical quorum of a
majority of the whole board.
- We are worried that mayors or commissioners will not have time to do
this work. While we would prefer DRCOG is not involved at all, at least
they should be able to designate someone that will have the time. Moreover,
being a mayor or commissioner does not guarantee that they know about
transit any more than the current system. It just takes a choice away from
voters.
- If someone is a mayor or commissioner is there not a conflict with the
duty of loyalty required of a board member? How do they vote if they are
supposed to represent the whole district but they were elected to serve
their community? There will be votes that might be better for the district
but not for their particular community.
- *In addition, please share any feedback on the transition between the
current elected board and new hybrid board. *
- How does this impact people that have already filed to run for a
specific district in 2024? They have likely created a campaign,
fundraised, etc., with a focus on a specific district. I know there are
two people running for District A. I am not aware of other districts but
know at least in that one this will be an issue.
- How do you decide which one serves the 2 vs 4 year term since they are
all elected.
- What do you do if you say no write in and there is no one that files
in time OR the person who is running has to drop out, dies, etc. if the
legislation prohibits write in candidates?
- Current directors that represent a district will move to at large.
Will they get a larger budget to do their constituent work? Will the state
pay for this? Right now they have funds based on their area only and they
will have many more constituents.
- Appointed members must be as available to the public as elected
members including posting their contact information and they must be
available to meet with constituents both during the day and evening.
- If there are not the same number of districts how does it work to say
each director lives in the district but serves at large. Some areas will
not have a director in their district.
We also support TOC but fail to see how RTD can control where people
develop property.
We are supportive of anything that will increase ridership. We do not
think a focus on events is going to do this, someone using RTD to go a
concert or game a few times a year is not as important as someone using it
to do daily business such as getting to work, getting kids to school,
errands, regular activities. We already have light rail service to most
event venues (DCPA, Pepsi Center, Ball Arena, etc)
With Gratitude,
Julie Reiskin
Co-Executive Director
Email Address: jreiskin at ccdconline.org
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
1385 S. Colorado Blvd. Bldg. A., Suite 610
Denver, CO 80222
Organizational phone: 303-839-1775 | Direct Phone: 303-667-4216
*Looking for ways to support our mission? Follow these links:*
*Join our membership for free
<https://ccdconline.org/take-action/membership/> | Online giving
<https://www.ccdconline.org/donate/> | Other ways to support
<http://www.ccdconline.org/donate/other-ways-to-give/>*
*CCDC is headquartered in Denver*; we acknowledge that Denver is on the
occupied land of the Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne people
*Nothing about us without us - ever!*
--
With Gratitude,
Julie Reiskin
Co-Executive Director
Email Address: jreiskin at ccdconline.org
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
1385 S. Colorado Blvd. Bldg. A., Suite 610
Denver, CO 80222
Organizational phone: 303-839-1775 | Direct Phone: 303-667-4216
*Looking for ways to support our mission? Follow these links:*
*Join our membership for free
<https://ccdconline.org/take-action/membership/> | Online giving
<https://www.ccdconline.org/donate/> | Other ways to support
<http://www.ccdconline.org/donate/other-ways-to-give/>*
*CCDC is headquartered in Denver*; we acknowledge that Denver is on the
occupied land of the Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne people
*Nothing about us without us - ever!*
<https://ccdconline.org/>
... <https://www.facebook.com/CCDC.CO> <https://twitter.com/CCDC501c3>
*Click the logos above or the text here to connect with us
at ccdconline.org <https://ccdconline.org/>, Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/CCDC.CO>, or Twitter
<https://twitter.com/CCDC501c3>*
On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 6:05 AM Tim Keenan via Colorado-Talk <
colorado-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Good morning!
>
> I posted an article on this proposed shakeup a while ago, but it’s looking
> more and more like it’s gonna happen. This article doesn’t mention equity
> for people with disabilities, so I’m curious what the NFB of Colorado and
> the CCD’s positions would be on this proposal? It seems as though it has a
> lot of support and is unlikely to be stopped. I don’t know enough about the
> subject to have an opinion, but I’d love to know what people think who know
> a lot more than I do.
>
>
> https://www.cpr.org/2024/03/26/state-lawmakers-move-to-cut-two-thirds-of-rtd-boards-elected-seats/
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim
>
>
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