Tuesday, July 20, 2004
All Quiet on the VTA Front
There doesn't seem to be much going on with VTA. Cipola arrogantly dismissed the Grand Jury report as (big surprise) nonsense. And other than a few complaints of less service (or less convenient service) and higher fares for January, there isn't much to say about it.
VTA's management has been exposed for the incompetent and arrogant jerks that they are--and for once it was done publicly. It is becoming more difficult to hide misdeeds, because the Internet makes it so easy to leak damaging information, and published information is much more easily disseminated; articles buried on the back page of a paper are all too easily promoted to front page status by linking from other sites on the Internet.
So what is in store for VTA in the next two to three years? That will depend on how many well-placed people care about the public money being deliberately wasted there. It will depend on how informed voters are in 2006 when VTA proposes another tax increase to save them from their own spending habits and on the state and federal government's willingness to risk more public money on a losing BART proposition.
If VTA is to survive in a meaningful way, there must be significant change in upper management, both in personnel and structure. The current VTA Board and general management must be replaced. The criteria for member selection must change; there must be accountability to the public served to limit wild, speculative ventures such as the BART extension. And the duties of VTA Board membership must be primary, not secondary to members' "real" jobs. It means making board membership a public office decided by democratic vote.
I encourage you, as employees, to be vocal. Speak up. Make your voices heard.
Start your own web logs, like this one, and link them together. Demand that the union be more visible, more accessable, and more accountable to ALL members, not just those who "bother" to attend monthly union meetings. You have the power to force change, but you must be willing to use it. You must become a visible and noisy force to be reckoned with.
The time is now, while the public is still concious of VTA's internal problems. The future of VTA is in your hands, but only if you realize it and take action.
VTA's management has been exposed for the incompetent and arrogant jerks that they are--and for once it was done publicly. It is becoming more difficult to hide misdeeds, because the Internet makes it so easy to leak damaging information, and published information is much more easily disseminated; articles buried on the back page of a paper are all too easily promoted to front page status by linking from other sites on the Internet.
So what is in store for VTA in the next two to three years? That will depend on how many well-placed people care about the public money being deliberately wasted there. It will depend on how informed voters are in 2006 when VTA proposes another tax increase to save them from their own spending habits and on the state and federal government's willingness to risk more public money on a losing BART proposition.
If VTA is to survive in a meaningful way, there must be significant change in upper management, both in personnel and structure. The current VTA Board and general management must be replaced. The criteria for member selection must change; there must be accountability to the public served to limit wild, speculative ventures such as the BART extension. And the duties of VTA Board membership must be primary, not secondary to members' "real" jobs. It means making board membership a public office decided by democratic vote.
I encourage you, as employees, to be vocal. Speak up. Make your voices heard.
Start your own web logs, like this one, and link them together. Demand that the union be more visible, more accessable, and more accountable to ALL members, not just those who "bother" to attend monthly union meetings. You have the power to force change, but you must be willing to use it. You must become a visible and noisy force to be reckoned with.
The time is now, while the public is still concious of VTA's internal problems. The future of VTA is in your hands, but only if you realize it and take action.
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