There has been lots of talk lately of changing the make up of the UTA board of directors. Most of this talk is coming from politicians do not like John Inglish making the amount of the money that he is currently making.
Most of this talk is not coming from politicians who want to improve transit, most of the talk is coming from either anti-transit zealot politicians who are too caught up in their political dogma to see reality or they are out for power.
However the truth is there is no transit system that is run directly by politicians that is better off than UTA, in fact most transit systems run by the politicians are usually in worst shape than the UTA.
To give an example of a system run directly by the politicians is the Spokane Transit Authority better known as the STA. Most the of the time the politicians just rubber stamp what the planners have to say since they truly have no idea what is needed on the system since most of them would not lower themselves to ride it. To make matters worst most of the people on the board are only part time. This means they work a full time job, have their regular city council or county commissioner duties, and the STA board along with several others. Is it any wonder that STA does not get the proper attention?
However, that is not saying that the UTA board is much better because generally the board is made up of politically connected hacks who are appointed by the politicians. They also would not lower themselves to actually ride the bus, so they do not truly know what is happening on the system and could care less.
What is really needed is better rider representation on the board. Why not require that one of the board members be a regular transit rider so that the other side of the coin is giving? The ridership of the transit system needs better representation on the board and at the UTA. Instead of changing UTA for the worst, lets change it for the better.
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