STA cannot get complacent
It was the silver lining that got all the attention Wednesday. Ecstatic transit supporters in Spokane County may have overlooked the cloud. The sales tax increase that will spare the community a 40 percent cutback in bus service coasted to victory.
But a downpour of troubles could yet drench Spokane County’s bus parade if transit officials get complacent. Or if bus riders and community leaders relax their vigilance.
The Spokane Transit Authority did not arrive at Tuesday’s election on a wave of public confidence. Only a year and a half earlier, a similar measure failed, and a survey at that time revealed that while the community likes its buses, it distrusts the agency that runs them.
That may have been on Spokane Valley City Councilman Dick Denenny’s mind Wednesday. “Our mission has just begun,” the STA board member said, promising a vigorous round of public meetings to gather input from all corners of the community.
That will be a good start, assuming STA leaders truly, sincerely, honestly, open-mindedly hear what the people want in return for the $18 million a year they approved on Tuesday.
Moreover, STA officials must be utterly transparent as they try to mesh public wishes with the political, financial and operational realities of running a bus system. Misleading predictions of doom surrounded the fall 2002 election and dealt a colossal blow to STA’s credibility. It left many voters approaching this week’s vote fearful of being burned twice. STA’s dealings have to be conducted in a fishbowl from now on.
The biggest challenge is the one for which the board is probably least motivated to act. STA’s current leadership structure is heavy on politics, light on the private-sector savvy. Indeed, hiring Avista executive Kim Zentz to run STA was essential to bringing businesslike understanding to the agency’s operation. Such expertise is needed beyond the staff level, however.
By law, all STA board members are elected officials from municipal governments in its service area. That’s not the way park boards and planning commissions are structured. That’s not the way the Public Facilities District is arranged. That’s not how the STA board should be comprised either.
The existing membership, which has the most to lose, won’t be enthusiastic lobbyists for change. Such a task will fall to other community members who are dedicated to reliable, efficient transit. It may fall to lawmakers themselves.
Wisely, STA board members put a four-year sunset clause on Tuesday’s ballot issue – a promise to voters that this week’s decision can be re-evaluated in 2008. If STA is going to be ready to face the voters then, as Denenny said, the job starts now.