In Transit January/February 2014 A Newsletter for Transit Employees

From the General Manager’s desk Great job in 2013!

I’d like to start the new year by celebrating our many accomplishments in 2013. We gave our customers and King County taxpayers high value and much-appreciated services.

We enhanced customer information tools and began work on a low-income fare program; increased the cost- effectiveness and efficiency of our This mural in the 10200 block of Aurora Avenue N seems to be welcoming operations and business practices; the E Line, which begins service along the corridor on Feb. 15. launched pedestrian awareness safety initiatives; reduced on-the-job injuries; and pursued several process- improvement projects. E Line begins on Aurora

Internally, we launched the he fifth RapidRide line is set to begin service between management-labor Partnership to Tand the Aurora Village Transit Center on Feb. 15. Achieve Comprehensive Equity (PACE); upgraded a number of our customer As construction of passenger amenities at E Line stops and stations wound down, and operating facilities; opened a new Metro’s Marketing and Service Information group began work on customer garage at the South Kirkland Park-and- information pieces, including bus timetables and schedule information, bus Ride; and awarded a contract for new interior and exterior signs, rider education materials about RapidRide’s fare trolley buses. payment and proof of payment systems, and marketing materials to let people This list only scratches the surface, know about the new features the E Line will provide along its corridor. and—despite diminished funding— we continued to grow our ridership. The E Line will replace Route 358, Preliminary 2013 numbers indicate that which carries about 12,000 riders each we came within 0.3 percent of our 2008 weekday. We expect ridership to grow In this issue record, missing by the equivalent of one after the E Line begins, partly because Changing of the Guard...... 2 weekday’s ridership despite the end the E Line will provide more service: Performance Corner...... 3 of the ride free area. This shows that mid-day service every 12 minutes King County is recovering and growing, instead of every 15 minutes, and Kudos...... 4 which means we need to grow, too. service every 15 minutes until 10 p.m. Seahawks Supporters...... 5 Continued on page 2 Short Shots...... 6 The sixth (and last planned) Security Sensitive...... 7 RapidRide line, the F Line, is scheduled to start running between On the Move...... 8 Burien and Renton in June. All told, Continued on page 3 Continued from page 1 Coming our way: a General Manager This time last year, we were staring at changing of the guard a “fiscal cliff” without new, sustainable funding. The state Legislature has not yet merica’s workforce is aging across all industries, but even more so in provided a solution to replace expiring Agovernment. The current median age of Metro employees is 52. and/or diminished revenues, so we now stand at the edge of that cliff. Despite Metro established its new Workforce Development Program to prepare the all we’ve done to control costs, increase next generation of leaders and skilled staff members. Jonathan Halperin, the fares, and build a more productive program’s manager, said it takes significant work and resources to build a system, we face the possibility of making “bench” of qualified employees who are ready to step into vacated positions— deep service cuts instead of growing. and we can’t do it overnight. We would prefer a balanced statewide transportation package with local options for funding Metro, but with the Legislature’s transportation funding effort stalled, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced on Jan. 14 a proposal to avoid significant cuts in Metro services. He asked the County Council to take swift action to form a countywide transportation benefit district, as allowed under current state law, and put a funding proposal to a public vote— possibly as soon as April.

Sharon Slebodnick, back row, second from right, stands with several The proposal would generate about members of her Transit Route Facilities group. Front row (L-R): Steve $130 million per year from two sources: Cahan, Joyce McEwen, David Korthals, Paul Roybal, Dan Wells, Jay Vavra. a $60 annual vehicle fee and a sales tax Back row (L-R): David Cantey, Verita Alexander, Liz Gotterer, Slebodnick, increase of one-tenth of a cent. Drew Robinson. Not pictured: Mary Bemowski, Dale Cummings, Colin Sixty percent of these funds (a projected Drake, Franco Fernandes, Rose McCracken $80 million in 2015) would go to Metro for transit service. That’s enough to maintain “As leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure a transition that’s minimally our current service level. The rest would disruptive for our staff and their work,” said Sharon Slebodnick, a supervisor go to road projects. in Service Development who has dealt with several retirements in her group and has more on the way. “This demonstrates respect for the remaining team The Executive’s proposal also includes members, our customers, the people we partner with, and Metro as a whole.” a fare ordinance with a 25-cent increase for regular fares, a 50-cent increase for When employees retire after 25 or 30 years of service, there’s a risk of losing a Access fares, and a new low-income huge amount of information and know-how, and deep working relationships that fare. If this is adopted, we’ll become have been fostered over many years, Slebodnick said. Maintaining an open and one of only a few transit agencies in the trusting relationship with your staff is key to getting an opportunity to transfer country that offer a low-income fare, and launching this new program by March those assets. 2015 will become one of our major “Staff members need to feel safe and willing to share their future plans with initiatives this year. you,” she said. “I make it a habit to ask my employees, especially as they near Of course we can’t afford to rest on retirement age, ‘What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What are top goals our laurels. We’re setting new priorities you want to achieve before you end your career with Metro, and how can I best for 2014, and chief among them will be support you?’” securing sustainable funding. With it, we can focus on meeting our customers’ Slebodnick said she also promotes the idea that each employee is unique and needs. Without it, we must focus on carries a huge store of experiences, talents, insights, and skills “that we want to downsizing our system. But we’ll have carefully and respectfully hand off, for the benefit of the team and the work we do.” other important initiatives as well—watch for our “Top 10” list in the next issue. Halperin said the first step in protecting a group’s institutional knowledge is to identify the biggest risk areas, where expert employees have unique skills and — Kevin Desmond General Manager Continued on page 3 Page 2 Performance Corner It’s all about accountability and performance

n this space, we usually focus on a single topic that Bus On-Time Performance, Weekday Imeasures how well Metro is delivering service to the 90.0% public. But that only scratches the surface of what’s available. Our Online Accountability Center has detailed information (updated monthly) on dozens of measures of ridership, safety 80.0% e m

and security, service quality, and finances—and it’s available to i T - our employees and staff members as well as the general public. n O 70.0% t n e c

The website also includes annual statistics and reports that r e cover even more measures. In the Annual Customer Service P section, for example, we show how our online customer 60.0% contacts have grown tremendously over the past several

years, and a peer comparison with 29 of the largest bus 50.0% agencies in the U.S. shows that we have the tenth highest Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec annual bus boardings. 2013 Target 2013 2012 2011 2010

At right is an example of one of the monthly charts, showing one of our measures of service reliability. Our goal is for our performance in October and November 2013 was the buses to be between one minute early and five minutes late at best it’s been in those months since before 2010. Still, our bus stops at least 80 percent of the time. we’re not meeting our 80-percent target—yet.

Our on-time rate tends to go down every summer, but since For (much) more information, see the Accountability 2012 we’ve been steadily improving overall. And our on-time Center at http://metro.kingcounty.gov/am/accountability/.

Continued from page 2 Continued from page 1 Coming our way: a changing of the guard E Line begins on Aurora

knowledge. Leaders need to fully understand what these experts do, how they do it, and who they work with most closely:

■■ What are the key steps in their work processes? What’s the best way to document those steps? ■■ How do they get results? What behaviors, styles, and approaches seem to work best? ■■ Who are their key contacts, their critical work relationships, their internal and external stakeholders? David Lantry, Susan Rudolph-Loos, and Deborah Brockway show some of the materials their group Slebodnick said it helps to think of retirements and other produced for the launch of the RapidRide E Line. departures “as opportunities for more junior staff members to develop and grow, for you as a leader to potentially the RapidRide program has received more than $120 reorganize your team, and perhaps to bring in new talent million in federal and state grants, offsetting more than with a fresh perspective.” We’ll all be facing this common half the cost of its new buses and passenger amenities. challenge in the coming years, she added, “and believe RapidRide has shown itself to be an effective way to me, it really pays off to start planning early.” attract riders and increase customer satisfaction with Halperin has put together a list of options for transferring public transportation. The A and C lines both exceeded institutional knowledge; you can read it on Metro’s their five-year goals of increasing ridership by 50 Workforce Development website at http://1.usa.gov/1fPRbB3. percent, in less than two years—and ridership on the B and D lines has grown by 20 percent. Page 3 KUDOSIN TRANSIT

■■Cannon named first-line ■■Operator helps return stolen supervisor of shake-up—In Transit bike—After Beth Gunn’s bicycle was apologizes for this belated recognition: stolen, she was astonished to see it Julia Cannon was named First-line heading toward her on the street—in Supervisor of the Shake-up for Fall the bike rack on the front of a D-Line 2012. Cannon became a first-line bus. She stopped the bus and told supervisor in 1991 and currently the driver that her stolen bike was serves as the a.m. dispatcher at North in his rack. That driver was Matt Base. Her team calls her a great role Leber (AKA VeloBusDriver), a model, especially to North Base fellow bike commuter and bike-transit operators and to the supervisors- Julia Cannon blogger. While they spoke, a couple in-training staff assigned to her. of passengers left the bus through the They say she demonstrates positive ■■Stockman honored for energy rear doors. When Leber asked the leadership, consistency, reliability, and savings—The King County Employee remaining passengers who owned the commitment to Metro’s mission and Energy Program recognized Bill bike on the front of the bus, no one values; brings professionalism to her Stockman, superintendent of Power answered. After Gunn provided a copy position; and does not hesitate to take Distribution, as an “Energy Hero” in of her police report and a photo of her the lead when necessary. its Fall 2013 newsletter. Conservation bike, a Metro supervisor allowed her is a daily practice for Stockman and to claim her property. For the full story ■■Metropool team honored—Metro’s those he supervises, the article said. of this happy reunion, see the Seattle Metropool program—the nation’s first Their primary focus is on Metro’s Bike Blog (http://bit.ly/1mq6KzH). all-electric vanpool program—received Electric Trolley bus system and the 2013 Alternative Fuels Spirit infrastructure, and they also maintain Award from the Western Washington the electrical and communication Clean Cities Coalition on Dec. 5. systems in Transit-owned buildings Syd Pawlowski, Daphne Dilley, and and passenger facilities. By constantly Cindy Hudson accepted the award looking for ways to apply energy- on behalf of the many individuals and efficient methods and products, his groups who contribute to Rideshare team has saved about 1.5 million kWh Operations, including staff members of electricity per year – worth more from Metro, King County’s Fleet than $105,000. They’ve also captured Administration Division, and the some $300,000 in utility incentive Department of Transportation. rebates over the past two years. Read the article online at http://bit. ly/1msMAou (county computers only).

Beth Gunn, left, celebrates the return of her stolen bike with Matt Leber (photo courtesy of Seattle Bike Blog).

Send questions, comments, or story ideas to Hudson, Dilley, and Pawlowski In Transit, KSC-TR-0824, or contact the editor, with Alternative Fuels Spirit Award Anna Clemenger, at 206-477-3839 or anna.clemenger@ plaques. kingcounty.gov. Transit coordinator: Bob Simpson. Bill Stockman, Energy Hero Staff photographer: Ned Ahrens.

Page 4 Service awards The following employees achieved major service milestones in the first quarter of 2014: 40 Link – James Gorham. Vehicle Maintenance – Carl Inman, Ragnar Kristjansson, Fred Zingleman. 35 Power and Facilities – Donald Aylesworth, Birdie Loud and proud— Marciel. Transit Operations – Charles Ahrenius, Ray Campbell, Metro shows 12th Oleg Gielman, Charles La Croix, Man spirit Edward Leung, Carey Watson. Vehicle Maintenance – James When the Seahawks clinched a Jakeman, Robert Martinsen, National Football League Richard Minyard, Kurt Sutphin. playoff berth and a chance at the Super Bowl, Bellevue Base Operator John Boone (shown at left with Base Chief Transit operators Ramona Dudley-Moore) of the month approached Base Superintendent December 2013 Ken Johnston with the idea of allowing operators to wear Raymond Wilson Atlantic Base: jerseys and hats in support of the Randy Burke Bellevue Base: team. Operations Manager Jim Eddie Yi Central Base: O’Rourke green-lighted the scheme, allowing Kenneth Newton Eastside Base: operators and first-line supervisors to wear Dale Overby North Base: Seahawks-branded apparel at work on “blue Timothy Tyni Ryerson Base: Fridays” (those before a Seahawks playoff Robert Horton South Base: game) and playoff game days. As these January 2014 photos show, the idea caught on throughout Atlantic Base: Chad Lopez the organization. Bellevue Base: James Baugh Central Base: Don Bielenberg East Base: Grigoriy Brushchenko North Base: Yuri Gimbiruk Ryerson Base: Prashant Kumar South Base: James Campion

In Transit online Current and past issues of In Transit are available at www.kingcounty.gov/InTransit.

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Page 5 SHORT SHOTS IN TRANSIT News briefs in and around the Transit Division

■■VanPool tops 2013 growth ■■Operation Happy Holidays— lanes were installed before the E Line goal—Rideshare Operations had a From mid-September through mid- launch in order for us to measure goal of growing its service by 60 new November, Metro Transit Police bus timing through the area and test vanpools last year. They met that goal deputies joined other local law the transit signal priority system that two months early. As of Oct. 31, they enforcement agencies in a special will be used for the E Line—making had 62 more active vanpool groups undercover operation to clean up Route 358 an early beneficiary of than at the start of the year, having drug dealing along Third Avenue in these improvements. averaged 20 vanpool starts and 14 van downtown Seattle and make the area returns per month. safer and more pleasant during the holiday shopping season. Felony cases ■■ McLaughlin were developed against 40 drug dealers remembered—On and suspected gang members, and 31 Nov. 29, Metro had been arrested and booked into managers and ATU King County Jail by early December. 587 members attended memorial services for Mark McLaughlin at Mark McLaughlin both his gravesite and Metro’s North Base playfield. McLaughlin was murdered Route 358 benefitted from early while driving his Route 359 bus implementation of improvements across the 15 years designed to speed RapidRide E ago. Union members also placed a Line service on Aurora Avenue N. ] wreath at the place where the bus ■■ went off the Aurora Bridge. The day Pilot parking projects—Metro after Thanksgiving has been named received grants last year from the “Mark McLaughlin Day” in the ATU Federal Highway Administration and labor agreement in order to keep Federal Transit Administration to his memory alive. The North Base support “right-sized” parking projects playfield was named in McLaughlin’s Metro Transit Police bike and encourage developers to support honor last summer. officers identified suspects from dense, compact development that leads undercover drug buys as part of to growth in the number of people ■■Charter signed for 10-year a sweep to clean up narcotics who get around without automobiles. downtown Seattle transit plan—Last trafficking in downtown Seattle. Through a competitive bid process, October, executives at Metro, Sound Metro chose four organizations Transit, , and the ■■BAT lanes open on Aurora— (Capitol Hill Housing, El Centro de la Washington and Seattle departments of New BAT (Business Access and Raza, Hopelink, and Zipcar) to partner transportation committed to working Transit) lanes have been installed with us on pilot parking projects together to support coordinated on Aurora Avenue N in preparation that will support the objectives of transit services and enhancements in for the RapidRide E Line, which is our strategic plan. In 2014, each of downtown Seattle over the next decade. due to launch in February. The new these organizations will be doing Agency leaders charged their staffs lanes, between N 115th Street and pilot parking projects at multifamily with developing recommendations for N 38th Street, add to existing BAT buildings in King County with the goal ways to ensure that major infrastructure lanes between N 145th Street and N of promoting transit and other travel construction projects will work with 192nd Street. More possible locations alternatives, affordable housing, and transit and maintain or enhance transit are under review by the Seattle compact development. access to downtown Seattle. Department of Transportation. These Page 6 Campbell retires after 31 years at Metro

arwin Campbell started his transit system website in the Dcareer at Metro in 1983, when U.S., our online trip planner, he was hired as the budget and and online pass sales; financial officer of Metro’s Marketing installation of a computerized, Division. He wore other hats— moving-carousel system for including customer relations chief and handling and distributing supervisor of vanpool operations— bus timetables; purchase and before becoming the supervisor of deployment of Orca vending budget and technology in 1993. machines; and adoption of the automated system that In that post, he oversaw the Sales and tracks all customer comments Customer Services budget and the that come in via telephone launch of ground-breaking customer- and email. facing technology systems. He also spent time in Transit IT, supervising Campbell established a Darwin Cambpell the systems support team. In 1996, quality customer services culture at he became manager of Sales and Metro and represented us at many “It’s been a great 31 years,” Campbell Customer Services, leading Metro’s transit industry conferences. He also said. “I’ve worked with some great adoption of new, innovative ways of served as a national board member of teams that achieved many new and communicating with customers. the Conference of Minority Transit innovative things. I’m proud of the Officials (1996 and 2001) and was work performed by Sales and Customer Campbell oversaw many a member of the Federal Transit Services staff over the years, and will technological milestones at Metro, Administrators safety and security continue to follow their successes as including the creation of the first task force after the 9/11 attacks. they move forward after I leave.”

Security Sensitive Look ahead to the incident report

f you drove to work Perhaps you wonder if the owner will than the TV remote, is probably a bad Ithis morning, was ever come to claim it. But what if choice (remember Murphy’s Law). there a moment when someone sees you find it, and then And how amazing would it be to find you checked your sees you not turn it in? something that was worth exactly cell phone, were busy eating, or got what your integrity, job, or reputation We aren’t stupid, but do we sometimes is worth? If you handle the situation distracted by the radio and hit the do stupid things? You can answer for “road turtles?” What if an accident had poorly, you may be exchanging one for yourself, but my answer is a resounding the other. happened at that moment? “yes!” The fact is that in each of Or what about the last time you were these situations, the incident report Take a moment today to look ahead to sick, and rummaged through your is nearly written as we consider (or the incident report—and stay secure. don’t consider) our options. Make the medicine cabinet? I did that recently — Mark L. Norton and found medicines that were just right choice, and the need for a report evaporates. Make the wrong choice, Manager, Transit Security and what I needed…but they weren’t Emergency Management prescribed for me. When I finally and the ink becomes permanent. tracked down some over-the-counter Send comments and ideas on If you’re easily distracted at the wheel, Metro security, emergency night-time cold medicine, it was, sadly, the Europeans and Australians have broad daylight. management, and homeland some great commercials on YouTube security to mark.norton@ When you find something that isn’t that will scare you straight. Taking kingcounty.gov. yours, do you always turn it in? meds that aren’t yours, or that aren’t suitable when you’re operating more Page 7 ON THE MOVE Transit Division retirements, promotions/job changes, new hires, and remembrances

Retirements Dale Cummings to transportation planner IV from transportation planner III Operations Vehicle Maintenance Corinne Farr, first-line supervisor (South Base) – Sheri Keelan to acting data administrator from technical December 31; 34 years information processing specialist Henry Fichtner, transit operator (South Base) – Cindy Sattler to functional analyst IV from data December 31; 31 years administrator Eli Haggins, transit operator (South Base) – Karl Urwiler to acting transit parts specialist from November 1; 23 years purchasing specialist Frank Neubert, transit operator (North Base) – January 1; 24 years New Hires Linda Wells, training instructor (South Base) – February 1; 32 years Power and Facilities Transit Managers Office Michelle Anderson, administrative specialist III Carol Dawson, business and finance officer II – (Power Distribution) – December 2 December 1; 8+ years Rail Vehicle Maintenance Ian Bennett, transit chief (Railway, Signage and Lolita Co, transit utility service worker (Ryerson) – Facilities); rehire – November 25 December 1; 23+ years Kirk Friermuth, rail electrical worker (Link); rehire – Jeannette Willis, administrative specialist III (North Base) – December 9 February 28; 22+ years Gina Goss, rail service worker (Link) – December 9 Sales and Customer Services Promotions and Job Changes Marianne Ward, transit pass sales representative Design and Construction (Customer Services); rehire – December 2 Mike Chargualaf to project control engineer IV from Service Development project control engineer III Martin Minkoff, supervisor (Service Planning) – General Managers Office September 23 Brian Van Abbema, undergrad intern II (Speed and Vinh Tran to transit administrative support specialist II from Reliability) – December 3 transit administrative support specialist I Vehicle Maintenance Operations Anthony Cazenave, equipment service worker (TLT) – Laurie Carter to operations systems support coordinator December 2 from first-line supervisor (North Base dispatch/planner) Louise Haworth, utility service worker – December 2 Tutti Compton to chief of service quality from Atlantic Base Jason Hogg, equipment service worker (TLT) – chief (cross training) November 4; mechanic (TLT) – December 7 Tim Mack to Atlantic Base chief from chief of service quality Brian Paez, equipment service worker (TLT) – December 2 (cross training finished) Cheryl Woodruff, technical information processing Jason Oppie to training chief (Central/Atlantic/Ryerson specialist III (TLT) – November 4 Bases) from base chief (East Base) Lynn Riley to training chief (Bellevue Base) from training In Our Thoughts chief (Central/Atlantic/Ryerson Bases) Service Development Andy Gilmore, mechanic (retired) passed away November 9 Ashley (DeForest) Arai to acting transportation planner III George Voller, mechanic (South Base) passed away (Service Planning) from transportation planner II November 16 (6-month backfill for Jana Demas)

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