The RTA board is leaning towards delaying putting a funding/Woodward bus vote to the public.

Since the vote has to be gubernatorial or presidential years this would put it November 2016 at the earliest.

-The delay in th vote is because the CEO left.

-The CEO left because there was no money for a staff.

-There was no money for staff because there isn't a dedicated funding source.

-The board, while looking for a replacement CEO, will of course opt to delay a vote that would give them...a dedicated funding source.

Stop it.

Just stop it.

Quit aiming for the cellar.

Quit fucking up.

Quit making dumb decisions.

Do they not realize how important public transit is? Do they realize transportation in this town is ABYSMAL? It's like trash pickup, or a fire department. It's not a damn option.

Is it some type of munchausen condition?

Do TPTB actually get enjoyment from bitching and crying and complaining about lack of money, and that's why they keep shooting themselves in the foot? By not presenting the public a solid plan? By delaying a funding source for 2+ years so they get to cry to anyone that'll listen how the big bad public won't fund them, and they should be calling tea party fuck bags who don't give a shit about this city or it's residents and BEG them to give the RTA money that they damn near had to get teeth pulled, and send a death blow to labor via RTW, in order to barely get started?

BTW this shows just shitty the original choice in Hertel was. He managed a shitty SMART system [[and no being slightly better than DDOT does not actually make you decent, let alone good). But somehow his "connections" in the area made him suitable for such an important task. He KNEW how much animosity the powers in this state have for public transportation and yet he kept stringing the board and the region along hoping money for a staff would materialize out of thin fucking air. Guess his "connection" didn't really amount to shit did it?

Seems a forward thinking leader would renogotiate his contract. For the first year where there is no funding mechanism, he takes maybe half of his 160K salary, and gives the rest to 2 or 3 graduates of the many fine schools in this state hungry for a job in this shitty economy. And when the funding kicks in his salary scales accordingly. But nah he just goes back to SMART like nothing happened.

Public transportation CAN'T be this difficult. Detroit was the last in the country to [[almost) get their act together. Maybe just maybe it's the same people who have falling down the up escelator for 60 years making it seem so impossible.