[Colorado-Talk] RTD Board Public Comment

[Julie Reiskin]

This is very well done..thank you so much!

Julie Reiskin  Co Executive Director CCDC

On Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 5:11 PM Tim Keenan via Colorado-Talk <
colorado-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I thought I’d share the public comment letter I just sent to the Board.
> It’s long, but there’s a lot to say, and in writing, we don’t have to worry
> about the 2-minute time limit. This is a good template for you to use as
> you send your own public comment letter to the Board, but please don’t just
> copy and paste; give your letter your own unique flavor.
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Members of the RTD Board of Directors,
>
> My name is Tim Keenan. I am the State Transportation Chair of the National
> Federation of the Blind of Colorado, and I am a daily user of
> Access-on-Demand. I live at 49 W 1st Ave
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/49+W+1st+Ave?entry=gmail&source=g> in
> Denver, which means I am a constituent of Director Guzman's. I want to
> address his comments at the June 10 OSSC meeting directly -- but first, let
> me share the broader context I believe this Board needs to hear.
>
> I have been following this process closely since April. I have read the
> board packets, attended the committee meetings, reviewed the transcripts,
> and done my own research into how peer agencies across the country have
> handled the same challenges RTD is facing. I am not writing to alarm you or
> to pretend that RTD's financial situation is not real. It is real, and I
> respect the difficulty of what you are being asked to decide. But I believe
> the Board is being presented with an incomplete picture, and I want to
> offer what I hope is a more complete one.
>
> ON THE BUDGET -- DIRECTOR BENKER HAS SHOWN THERE IS ANOTHER WAY
>
> Director Benker's independent budget analysis, submitted for Tuesday's
> meeting, demonstrates something important that has been missing from this
> conversation: a comprehensive alternative to large-scale service cuts that
> still closes the entire $215 million deficit. Her Option 1 -- combining
> $119.2 million in revenue measures with labor savings, contract reductions,
> advertising revenue, and just 5 percent in service cuts -- generates a $6.7
> million surplus. Not a shortfall. A surplus.
>
> I am not saying 5 percent service cuts are painless. They are not. But
> they are a fundamentally different proposition than 15, 17.5, or 20 percent
> cuts. Before this Board authorizes staff to model cuts at those levels, I
> would respectfully ask every director to read Director Benker's two-page
> presentation and answer one question: why is her Option 1 not sufficient?
>
> The argument that has been made -- that RTD must model aggressive cuts to
> satisfy bond rating agencies and demonstrate fiscal seriousness -- is not
> wrong on its face. But there is a meaningful difference between
> demonstrating seriousness and committing to a path before the full range of
> alternatives has been exhausted. The Board adopted its own December 2025
> resolution requiring that it identify in advance the revenue enhancements
> and expense reductions needed to balance the budget. Director Benker's
> presentation shows that resolution can be honored without decimating
> service. The Board should take that seriously.
>
> ON THE BALLOT MEASURE -- THIS IS THE ENDGAME, AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT
>
> RTD is going to ask voters for money in 2028. Management has said so. The
> Board has discussed it. It is not a secret. The only real question is what
> kind of organization makes that ask.
>
> I have spoken to riders, neighbors, and community members throughout this
> process. What I hear consistently is that people want to support RTD. They
> want good transit. They understand that the agency needs resources. But
> they will not vote to give more money to an agency they no longer trust --
> an agency that cut their bus, eliminated their paratransit eligibility, and
> told them there was no other choice when there was.
>
> The $227 million in unrestricted reserves exists for exactly this kind of
> situation. Using a portion of it as a bridge to a 2028 ballot measure --
> combined with the revenue measures, labor savings, and modest service
> adjustments in Director Benker's analysis -- is not financial recklessness.
> It is the kind of strategic decision-making that preserves the agency's
> standing with the public while pursuing a permanent solution. Cutting 20
> percent of service, going to voters two years later, and asking them to
> fund the restoration of what was taken -- that is a much harder sell.
>
> ON ACCESS-ON-DEMAND -- A MESSAGE TO MY OWN DIRECTOR
>
> At the June 10 OSSC meeting, Director Guzman said, on the record, that
> monies being used for nonrequired programs are "the first ones that need to
> be chopped." As one of his constituents -- as someone who relies on
> Access-on-Demand to get to work, to medical appointments, to participate in
> community life -- I want to address that argument directly, because I
> believe it gets the financial reality exactly backwards.
>
> AOD was created in 2019 because Access-a-Ride was failing. It was too
> expensive, too slow, and unable to meet the needs of a significant portion
> of its riders -- specifically those who don't use mobility devices and
> don't need door-to-door, lift-equipped service. RTD recognized that people
> with cognitive disabilities, autism, learning disabilities, and other
> non-mobility impairments were being routed through a system designed for a
> different population, at a cost of over $100 per boarding. AOD offered
> those riders a faster, more flexible, more dignified service at a maximum
> subsidy of $20 per trip.
>
> If RTD eliminates AOD, those riders do not disappear. They go back to
> Access-a-Ride. And Access-a-Ride -- which already saw its on-time
> performance drop from above 90 percent to 83 percent between June and
> August of 2025, before absorbing any additional load -- will absorb
> thousands of additional trips at five times the cost. That is not savings.
> That is a budget disaster wearing a cost-cutting disguise.
>
> The peer agency data is unambiguous. Washington DC's WMATA pays an average
> of $24 per trip through its Uber partnership versus $135 for traditional
> paratransit -- more than 80 percent lower. New York's MTA saved $102.7
> million in a single year by shifting eligible riders from traditional
> paratransit to on-demand alternatives. Boston, Chicago, and New Jersey
> Transit are doing the same thing. The industry is moving decisively in this
> direction because the math is undeniable.
>
> Director Guzman, I understand your concern about spending money on
> programs that are not federally required when the agency is under severe
> financial pressure. That is a legitimate instinct. But I would ask you to
> look at the data from your own agency and from peer agencies across the
> country. AOD is not a luxury add-on. It is a cost containment tool that is
> already saving RTD money every single day compared to what those same trips
> would cost on Access-a-Ride. Eliminating it would not save money. It would
> cost more.
>
> What RTD should be doing is the opposite -- actively identifying
> Access-a-Ride riders who don't need door-to-door service and transitioning
> them to AOD. That would reduce costs, improve AAR's performance for those
> who genuinely need it, and preserve independence for thousands of riders
> who have built their lives around a service that finally works for them. I
> am one of those riders. I know what AOD means to people, and I know what
> losing it would mean.
>
> ON THE INDEPENDENT PARATRANSIT STUDY -- HONOR THE LAW YOU HELPED ENACT
>
> RTD is required by SB 26-150 to commission an independent third-party
> study of its paratransit system by December 31, 2027. That study exists
> because the legislature recognized that major decisions about paratransit
> should be informed by independent, objective analysis -- not by the same
> staff whose budget pressures create an incentive to cut the programs they
> are being asked to evaluate. Our coalition -- the National Federation of
> the Blind of Colorado, ADAPT Colorado, Atlantis Community, and the Colorado
> Cross-Disability Coalition -- has formally asked the Board to maintain
> existing paratransit service levels until that study is complete. Making
> permanent cuts to AOD before the study is done would undermine the very
> purpose of the law that was just enacted. I am asking you not to do that.
>
> ON GRANDFATHERING -- THIS IS A SIMPLE ASK WITH A CLEAR ANSWER
>
> If service cuts reduce the ADA-mandated paratransit coverage area, people
> who are currently eligible for Access-a-Ride will lose that eligibility
> through no fault of their own. They will have built jobs, medical routines,
> housing choices, and daily lives around a service that will no longer cover
> them. Chair O'Keefe has expressed support for grandfathering existing
> riders. I am asking the full Board to make that commitment explicit on
> Tuesday -- not as a general principle, but as a formal policy directive to
> staff that no existing eligible rider will lose eligibility as a result of
> service changes.
>
> ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION -- THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE QUIET
>
> The Board voted in March to cap public comment at one hour per meeting. I
> understand the operational rationale. Long meetings are genuinely difficult
> to manage. But this is not an ordinary moment in RTD's history. The
> decisions being made in the next several months will affect tens of
> thousands of riders for years to come. The disability community, low-income
> riders, seniors, workers who depend on transit -- these are people who have
> very little power in most policy arenas. Public comment is one of the few
> tools they have. I am asking the Board to suspend the one-hour cap for all
> meetings related to the service change and budget process, and to expand
> opportunities for meaningful public participation before any final
> decisions are made.
>
> IN CLOSING
>
> I have spent months studying this situation. I have read every board
> packet, attended every relevant meeting I could, coordinated with peer
> disability organizations, and researched what other transit agencies across
> the country have done in similar circumstances. I have done all of that
> because I believe RTD is worth fighting for, and because I believe the
> riders who depend on it deserve an agency that fights for them too.
>
> The decisions before you on Tuesday are not final. They are directional.
> But direction matters. The direction you set Tuesday will shape what staff
> models, what gets presented to the public in September, and what the full
> Board votes on in December. I am asking you to set a direction that takes
> seriously the alternatives to large-scale service cuts, that protects the
> riders who have the most to lose, and that positions RTD to make a
> successful case to voters in 2028.
>
> You have allies in this community who want to help you get this right. We
> will be in that room on Tuesday, and at every meeting that follows. We are
> not adversaries. We are partners in a transit system that, at its best,
> makes this region more connected, more equitable, and more livable for
> everyone.
>
> Please make it the best version of itself.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Respectfully submitted,
>
> Tim Keenan
> State Transportation Chair
> National Federation of the Blind of Colorado
> Access-on-Demand rider, RTD District C
>
>
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