3/28/2019

Re: Community Engagement

Mike McCurdy
Thu 3/28/2019 6:29 PM
To: Sarah Grammer <sgrammer@normaltownship.org>
Cc: Isaac Thorne <IThorne@connect-transit.com>; Whitehouse_Ryan <rwhitehouse@ilfb.org>; John Bowman <john.bowman.bbh2@statefarm.com>; Judy Buchanan <judyblm1@gmail.com>;
Monica Bullington <monica@lovebloomington.com>; Julie Hile <hile@hilegroup.com>; Pamela Reece <preece@normal.org>; Tim Gleason <tgleason@cityblm.org>; news_wglt <news@wglt.org>;
news@wjbc.com <news@wjbc.com>; dbeigh@pantagraph.com <dbeigh@pantagraph.com>; mayor@cityblm.org <mayor@cityblm.org>; ward1@cityblm.org <ward1@cityblm.org>;
ward2@cityblm.org <ward2@cityblm.org>; ward3@cityblm.org <ward3@cityblm.org>; ward4@cityblm.org <ward4@cityblm.org>; ward5@cityblm.org <ward5@cityblm.org>; ward6@cityblm.org <ward6@cityblm.org>;
ward7@cityblm.org <ward7@cityblm.org>; ward8@cityblm.org <ward8@cityblm.org>
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Normal Township Supervisor Grammer,

Fares are scheduled to increase October 1. More route changes are imminent if significant funds are not found for FY 2023. The clock is ticking on these budget realities -- realities
with which any future board will also have to grapple. I remain hopeful you'll respond to my earlier request for a meeting so we can discuss real solutions and work together to
advocate for funds and actually help the customers you profess to care about, instead of exchanging emails. When you're ready to seriously discuss transit in our community --
even the system's email practices, but particularly your ideas about how to sustainably fund it and your agency's ability to help financially -- let me know. 

At your convenience, please provide dates and times when you're available for a meeting and we'll do our best to accommodate your schedule or reply with alternative dates and
times. 

On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 4:28 PM Sarah Grammer <sgrammer@normaltownship.org> wrote:

Chairman McCurdy,

I will not challenge your statement that staff went above and beyond to “collect” information, but if they did not disseminate all of that information, including 40 emails sent by
concerned residents, to the board members for their review ahead of an important vote, what was the value in all of that “collecting?” Community input isn’t meant to be sorted
and shelved; it is meant to be carefully considered by the governing body. Community feedback is not a box to check off; it is to be a major part of the decision making process.

Can you send me a copy of Connect Transit’s board communication policy? When you say, “upon discovering the emails yesterday,” can you explain how this discovery occurred?
Is the email account for the public to address board members typically unmonitored for days at a time? Is it truly left unchecked ahead of important votes? How many days
should taxpayers expect to pass between the sending of their email to the Connect Transit board and actual receipt of that email by board members?

I was shocked to find out that the email address for contacting board members on Connect Transit’s website does not in any way send communication directly to board
members. Email received from the public is monitored by Connect Transit staff and sent to the board in “batches” in the form of a PDF, making it difficult for board members to
respond to any individual’s email.

How many years have you been on the board and not felt a need to question this practice? I will point out again: you are a journalist; you should be leading the charge on
accessibility and transparency.

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Furthermore, when you say “Having spoken with some trustees they assure me they also would have still voted in favor of both proposals,” I am again shocked. This flies in the
face of the Open Meetings Act. Rather than reaching out to me or the others whose voices were excluded with a sincere apology, as would be appropriate, you apparently spent
your time calling fellow board members for assurance they wouldn’t change their votes due to this large amount of additional feedback. The community deserves an explanation
from the board at an open meeting.

If forty emails from the community make no difference to you and the other board members, I’m left to conclude that all of your listening sessions and your two hearings weren’t
really about listening to the community at all. I was told by many people in February, when concerned residents started calling me because they were upset to hear the Olive Line
was being cut from Orlando Northbrook and in front of the mobile home park and fares were being increased on the poor and disabled, that nothing could be done, that the
board had already made up its mind. Your email appears to support those claims.

In light of your response, I feel that I am left with no alternative but to appeal to the community in joining me to petition the Bloomington and Normal city councils to recall the
entire Connect Transit board, as provided for under the intergovernmental agreement controlling the agency. If the current board won’t listen to the community, it’s time to
make room at the table for board members who will work to build a more accessible and affordable public transportation system for those who need it.

Sincerely,

Sarah Grammer

Normal Township Supervisor

304 E Mulberry

Normal, IL 61761

(309) 452-2060 office

(217) 621-1260 cell

sgrammer@normaltownship.org

From: Mike McCurdy <mccurdymodal@gmail.com>

Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 1:42 PM
To: Sarah Grammer <sgrammer@normaltownship.org>
Cc: Isaac Thorne <IThorne@connect-transit.com>; Whitehouse_Ryan <rwhitehouse@ilfb.org>; John Bowman <john.bowman.bbh2@statefarm.com>; Judy Buchanan
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3/28/2019

<judyblm1@gmail.com>; Monica Bullington <monica@lovebloomington.com>; Julie Hile <hile@hilegroup.com>; Pamela Reece <preece@normal.org>; Tim Gleason
<tgleason@cityblm.org>; news@wglt.org; news@wjbc.com; dbeigh@pantagraph.com
Subject: Community Engagement

Normal Township Supervisor Grammer,

Thanks for getting in touch and sharing your concerns.

I would never choose words such as "suppression" or "withheld" to describe such an oversight. Words such as those imply intent. I also did not know prior to the vote the emails
had not been forwarded to trustees, as you state in your email.

The Connect Transit staff went above and beyond requirements to collect information from the community and forward that information to trustees. The board received multiple
updates from staff, that included the actual comment cards from the 14 different engagement sessions, held at different locations and at different times as well as a transcript of
the first public hearing on March 12th -- the only public hearing required -- yet Connect Transit held two hearings. Some board members attended the engagement sessions. I
attended three.

In addition to public engagement sessions, Connect Transit staff held what they considered private sessions for specific organizations, such as Life-Cil on March 22. This was a
meeting date actually requested by Life-Cil after General Manager Isaac Thorne called and offered a session specifically for them at their location. This session, and all of the
others, were designed all along to discuss and give feedback on two specific proposals that would be before the board on a future agenda.

Upon discovering the emails yesterday, General Manager Isaac Thorne promptly forwarded them to trustees and called me. Isaac assures me it was an oversight. And I believe
him. He thinks, and I agree, that the vote would have been the same. While it's important to gather as much input as possible, many of the messages in those emails are very
similar to each other and very similar to input trustees had already received. Having spoken with some trustees they assure me they also would have still voted in favor of both
proposals. That's not to say it was an easy decision. The stories told at the public hearings were difficult to hear. As I and other trustees stated at the meeting, I hope this is a
beginning point to continue a community dialogue about how to financially sustain transit in Bloomington-Normal.

I have little doubt trustees are acutely aware of the impact of their decisions on Tuesday. While I would have read the emails prior to the vote, I don't think there's anything more
powerful than the in-person comments from those affected by the proposals. It's the reason the implementation date of the fare increase was pushed back three months.

As this is the first time you've reached out to me directly during this process to discuss these issues, I'm interested in meeting soon to discuss how the Normal Township might
be able to address the budget pressures facing Connect Transit and alleviate future fare increases. As you know, the board passed a 4 year fare increase plan with an
implementation date of October 1. What you may not also be aware of is intense budget pressure facing the system in FY 2023 that could lead to even further route cut backs. I
would also remind you, and anyone else reading this email, Connect Transit is one of the few transit agencies in the country without taxing authority and relies on the fare box,
state and federal grants, and local operating and capital dollars provided by the City of Bloomington and Town of Normal to fund the system.

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I hope you can meet with Connect Transit staff and some of our board as early as next week and I look forward to receiving some dates and times that might work for you and
your staff.

--

Mike McCurdy

Chairman, Connect Transit Board of Trustees

Reliable and Safe Transportation Connecting Communities

From: Sarah Grammer <sgrammer@normaltownship.org>

Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 8:43 AM
To: McCurdy, Mike
Cc: Isaac Thorne; John Bowman; trustees@connect-transit.com; Derek Beigh; news@wjbc.com; news_wglt
Subject: Community Suppression

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Dear Connect Transit Board Chair Mike McCurdy,

It has been brought to my attention that Connect Transit management withheld email sent from approximately forty concerned residents to the transit board ahead of the
Tuesday, March 26th public hearing and vote to raise fares and eliminate a route, my own email included.

Many of those emails were generated out of concern following an ill-timed Connect Transit listening session on Friday, March 22nd at 3:00 PM at Life CIL. More than 30 people
crowded in the room and spoke out of deep concern over the proposed changes, including the very recent decision to discontinue Connect Mobility 30-day passes. The disabled
community spoke to Connect Transit admin about how devastating these changes would be for them and asked if their feedback would be taken to the board and if it would
influence Tuesday’s meeting. Martin Glaze looked at the clock, stated it was now after 4:00 PM, and that in compliance with OMA, board packets had already been sent at 3:30
PM and nothing would be changing. Aghast, the participants in the room asked why then had the meeting been scheduled if their voices would have no influence. Martin
concluded it was the participants’ chance to talk. Many in the room expressed concern that they had wasted their very limited dollars on transportation to attend the meeting only
to be told their voices would not matter in the decision making process.

The community tried to elevate the concerns of this group to the Connect Transit board. We used the single email address listed for board contact on the Connect Transit
website. Note that no phone numbers or individual email addresses are listed to contact board members directly. We know from the recorded statement of councilman Scott
Black at Monday night’s council meeting that you were contacted directly by council members who were being copied on the emails.

Chairman, it is deeply disappointing to me that upon your discovery that the emails had not been sent ahead of the vote that you did not reach out to those of us whose voices
were excluded and act to rectify this immediately. Many people had to work on Tuesday at 3:30 PM, the time of the scheduled public hearing, but believed their email to the
board would be seen by the board. Many of us who attended the hearing chose not to fill out a request to speak because we felt we had already petitioned the board with our
email opposition ahead of the hearing and, therefore, did not want to take time away from others who still hadn’t had a chance to be heard. I personally chose to speak at the
last minute at public comment and referenced the email I had sent the board. My comments would have been very different had I known my email had been withheld from the

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board.

As the board chair and a journalist, I am certain you will not stand for this type of suppression, whether it was intentional or merely negligent on the part of management. The
impact of forty voices is surely not meaningless. Please let me, and the many others whose voices were silenced in this process, know today when a new hearing and vote will
be scheduled.

Sincerely,

Sarah Grammer

Normal Township Supervisor

304 E Mulberry

Normal, IL 61761

(309) 452-2060 office

(217) 621-1260 cell

sgrammer@normaltownship.org

-- 

Mike McCurdy

Chairman, Connect Transit Board of Trustees

Reliable and Safe Transportation Connecting Communities

--
Mike McCurdy
Chairman, Connect Transit Board of Trustees
Reliable and Safe Transportation Connecting Communities

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