Northwest Indiana Discussion

Kenneth E. Dallmeyer, Project Director
Regional Bus Authority
6100 Southport Rd.
Portage IN 46368

Mr. Dallmeyer:

As someone who has not been as involved as others in the decade long battle for reliable and accessible public transit, I am not as informed as I would like to be on everything that has transpired. What I do know is this: there is a federal consent decree which requires transit providers to follow simple guidelines that were agreed upon in October 2006 and March of 2007. As you read this those guidelines have yet to be followed. I cannot comprehend why one would not want to comply with it, nor do I understand why these providers would do what they could to keep the very people who rely on their service from utilizing their service. You heard me argue, and justly so, at the County Council meeting that almost three-quarter of a million dollars for consulting fees on projects that later proved useless was a waste! With NWICA going out of public transit business and into the more lucrative private transit business thousands of residents in Northwest Indiana will be without transit. The mayor of Hammond has already de-funded transit and the Steel Cities are sure to follow suit. These are the issues we already know. My coming out against the tax does not indicate my desire to end public transit; it just indicates that the idea to implement a food and beverage tax, especially at this time during a national fiscal crisis, is wrong.

First and foremost, food and beverage has absolutely nothing to do with transit. Secondly the tax will decrease the number of people who already go out--which would then only consist of elected officials and their many patrons as well as the many unqualified people on the various alphabet agencies throughout the region. An alternative funding source does need to be secured. The money wasted on consulting fees could have kept funding NWICA until June, when the weather would be warmer and more people could come out and contribute to the discussion.

After President Obama was sworn in he asked of all of us to contribute and capped the wages of his most senior advisors. Reflecting back now, was keeping the people who use transit away from the table and the amount of money spent thus far really wise decisions? What do we have to show after all these years and millions of dollars later? I also wonder why (and I personally feel that this is an issue that needs to be thoroughly investigated) if you have two people going to the exact same location, picked up next door from each other, one paying cash and the other Medicaid, does it cost more for the Medicaid than the one paying cash? The fact is that the amount of Medicaid dollars wasted on nonmedical transit is not factored into the equation. Moreover, there is an appearance of Medicaid fraud throughout the transit providers as the riders are not given the opportunity to pay their two-dollars because it is more lucrative to bill Medicaid eighty-dollars or more each way.

Let us now reflect on the individuals involved, the history and the lugubrious progress made thus far. A cursory search of the many agencies starts with the in.gov website where you can find information on the RDA. When you look at the resources you find that NIRPC is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Northwest Indiana. As the MPO, NIRPC is responsible for coordinating the urban transportation planning process for the region. The next step for one trying to gather information on transit is to click the link for the NIRPC website. Looking at the webpage you can choose transportation and then the public transportation link which brings you up to another link to click called "partners page". Finally on the RBA section of the NIRPC website you find absolutely zero information. There is not a single listing of any transit provider in Northwest Indiana, any hours or days of operation, who the RBA is, who is involved, nothing. All that is offered is the strategic plan that didn't include input from riders and a newsletter from June 2008. Starting with the RBA (and my intention is not to be derogatory towards any individual as I know many of them) you have the president Dennis Rittenmeyer who is the head of Calumet College and has absolutely no transit experience whatsoever. The irony with Mr. Rittenmeyer is for one who claims to be working for people with disabilities he's certainly dragging his feet to ensure his college is accessible to people with disabilities. But that is another issue altogether. It may appear to be reasonable having the various transit directors on the RBA, but reflecting on how the services have been operated I wonder their experience as well. It is safe to assume that I will question who has transit experience and who does not. After all one would only expect that the individual in charge has relevant experience. Yet the RBA is comprised of nothing but political patronage appointments with little to no experience in running a public transit system; take Tim Brown for example. Executive Director Tim Brown once inquired what the elderly and disabled expected him to do when sidewalks were impassible during his tenure as Town Manager of Merrillville. The president of the Town Council later took time out of his busy schedule to walk with local residents and verify that the sidewalks were indeed impassable, and the state has committed to correcting the problem, no thanks to Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown acknowledged that only about a fifth of the people who ride NWICA's vehicles are actually 'public riders', the rest, he said, are their clients. Those are people prioritized because they have third party billing. Mr. Brown certainly is not someone with very strong people skills; I think he has caused irreparable harm to the public image of the RBA. Moreover he did not even know when the consent decrees were signed which sends a signal that he is not qualified for his position.

The bottom line is that NIRPC was created in 1965 and designated a MPO. MPO's are responsible for carrying out the transportation planning process for urbanized areas. Now seven years after creation of the RBA--in one form or another--three years after receiving funding and millions of taxpayer dollars wasted we have absolutely nothing to show for regional transportation. This all under the watchful eye of NIRPC and led by an incompetent and unqualified RBA president. As I begin to peruse through documents just recently forwarded to me I have even more questions than answers.

Finally, according to the NIRPC website, "Regional Bus Authority works to enhance the quality of life in Northwest Indiana by assuring the availability of a customer responsive regional bus transportation system." Since a 'responsive regional bus transportation system' doesn't and hasn't existed in almost a decade, will it be safe to assume that the RBA will hopefully cease to exist and an entity with a background of years of experience in the public transportation industry will be created in its place?

I will conclude with these thoughts: information is not readily available for those who seek it and when you finally get the information it doesn't come from the RBA. It appears as if a shell game is going on with money being exchanged numerous times between the RDA, NIRPC and the RBA. The losers are the residents of Northwest Indiana who desperately rely on these services and no one at the three aforementioned agencies are being held accountable for NWICA discontinuing services effective at the close of business thiss Friday.


Raymond L. Fletcher, III

GREAT POST RAY !!!

Freetime-here is a copy of exactly what I said at the County Council meeting: Transit is an essential service in Northwest Indiana. A service which needs to be improved and funded responsibly. Supporting public transportation does not mean you need to be in favor of a new tax and being against the proposed tax does not mean you are against public transportation. That is why I unequivocally oppose the food and beverage tax and the RBA; here’s why. First, in my opinion, the RBA has already mismanaged millions of tax dollars. They threw away over three quarters of a million dollars hiring for only two positions, a consultant and a marketing director, while at the same time refusing to work with people who regularly utilize the system. They are quick to offer up their sympathy, but slow to accept even a nickel’s worth of free advice. Second, the decision to continue with a contract for dispatching service when the agency announced they will be discontinuing transit service is not fiscally responsible. Finally the RBA is not elected an elected body, yet they are responsible for millions of dollars in taxpayer money with no form or fashion of recall or ability to vote in opposition to their actions. I am not the only college graduate, disabled individual or area resident who relies on public transportation. But apparently to the RBA, everybody doesn’t count. I have more faith that I will grow arms, stand up and walk out of this wheelchair before you, than I have in the RBA’s ability to effectively and responsibly operate any form of transportation in Lake County or anywhere in the state of Indiana or that matter. That is why again, I implore you to vote NO on the proposal before you. Voting against the proposed tax does not mean you are against public transportation.

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Let me argue this: I can understand and appreciate that many don't support public transit, with some even saying "take a cab." That is a valid argument as every one does not use public transit. But if you are in a wheelchair and you need transportation to work, in Merrillville, it will cost you $80 each way now. And if you need to go to the Government Office in Crown Point it's 90 bucks each way. Now imagine if you were a college student going to IUN, you have a disability and the demand-response services stop. If you live independently how are you suppose to get to school or work? The service stops and your ability to live independently is hindered. You then have to rely on other people who have their own lives, their own families and their own errands to run that maybe they can't wait 30 minutes for you at Ultra.