Friday, January 31, 2014

After listening to Mcfarlane on Think Out Loud

I am reminded of my old friend now deceased MICHAEL LEVINE who was the leading activist for the disabled. Since his death, there has been nobody stepping forward to fill his shoes.
Listen to what Michael had to say about the Trimet General Manager  

OPAL slams the Trimet elite

The Long Reach of Privilege « OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon

Given the recent details surrounding the TriMet board meeting and the tabling of an ordinance to extend transfer times (read up on the background here),  it is apparent that there is continued failure to recognize the social ramifications of the board’s action. There is no doubt that any change in policy will have consequences. And as is often the case, the communities that feel the greatest impact from these decisions are the ones most reliant on the region’s public transportation system. These are the underserved and underrepresented individuals that do not simply see the bus as a means of getting from point A to point B. It is their food security, their employment, their health care, their education. In denying public testimony on the matter of transfer changes, TriMet ignored these communities, continuing to practice the long-standing tradition of partnership in the name of publicity, not progress.
These issues remain at the heart of the nation as well. During his State of the Union address earlier this week, President Obama stressed the need for a new transportation bill. The online environmental journal Grist provides a great article detailing the impact transportation has on communities of color and how such inconsistencies divide the country along racial, ethnic, and economic lines. “When only certain segments of the population can easily access economic resources for advancement, that’s not opportunity. That’s called privilege.” When the voices that are heard belong to those who have the least at stake, that is privilege. When equity is forfeited in the name of politics, that is an extension of privilege. TriMet’s actions last week demonstrate a privilege that comes from a place of stability, from the knowledge that their lives are not measured in times tables and transfer slips. TriMet needs to adopt the practice of active listening in order to transform policies of privilege into campaigns of equity. Until then, communications will result in ethical and political standstill. Click the link here for the full story.

LATEST EDITION OF SEEN AND HEARD ON TRIMET

But not seen on TRIMET'S HOW WE ROLL BLOG!
TRIMET SCANNER TWEETS
@TransitTrekker 
It is a proven fact that whenever I need trimet to so desperately help me out from being late, it fails me. Every. Single. Time.

Trimet audit observations



According to the state audit the Trimet internal audit department has been functioning outside of legitimate standards of internal auditing.


As in the internal audit department, Trimet's scheduling department where the route changes are made has no set of standards which leaves all the decisions to the people making the decisions.

Directly from the audit, look at how badly the track and signal maintenance has fallen. The union had been talking about all that but it was dismissed by the phony ODOT report.



Trimet audit whitewash BULLSHIT

I'm just starting now to read and digest this BS audit but on page 2 we can immediately see the the people doing the audit completely missed what front line employees told them. As Bruce Hansen said, the message seems to be TriMet management is doing a terrific job, they just aren't telling the workers about it.” What employees REALLY told the auditor was this: they have never seen the workplace culture at TriMet more toxic than it is now. How could the auditor miss that? They missed it because they wanted to miss it obviously.

Now in the second paragraph the finding may be true but did not get qualified. They might be conducting the interview etc but is any of that actually being acted on?

 Without interviewing people on the other side of the coin the auditors conclusions are nothing but a rehash of the Trimet public relations department. It is identical to  the Trimet paid for audit on the public records department. They didn't interview even one person who has requested public documents. The should have asked JOE ROSE what he thought about that.


Trimet's most obvious safety fail

Alan Eisenberg has been talking about this for years, its the Trimet PRE-TRIP inspection that every driver is supposed to do before taking the bus out on the road. The image below is what is required before taking your vehicle in service and this is an excerpt from the 'audit' 
To ensure that vehicles are in working order, TriMet operators inspect their
vehicles prior to departing on their routes.



That's quite a few items that are supposed to be inspected before moving your bus in service.
And here is what is happening: Trimet gives operators 10 minutes from the time they sign in and get their route materials to go out and perform all those tasks, set up their drivers compartment which includes adjusting the mirrors and seats etc.

The reality is that none of the stuff listed in the picture above gets done. There is barely enough time to get out to the bus and set up the seat.

It's the most OBVIOUS Trimet safety FAIL and the 'auditors' missed it completely.

Trimet executives never stop lying and distorting

Dan Christensen does an essay on the State 'audit'



Nothing enrages me more than the corporate double speak coming out of Trimet Management over the State Audit. A State Audit that found us wanting in two specific areas.
Managing our money and Safety issues.
Now lets stop for a moment and think of this.
Two of the most important things Trimet managment does is, Managing Millions and Safety, right? So imagine this conversation just before you take off in a plane.

What Trimet really excels at

They are definitely the best when it comes to propaganda and their ability to sway the mind of the populace. Just now they made the following tweet below in the middle of all the various controversies going on. Just like the 'name that bridge' did wonders for Trimet (until they were exposed for being the hypocrites they are) public relations tweets below change the perception of an angry public.


Who's behind the campaign against Ballot Measure 34-210?

The leading group against the Tigard light rail measure:
Special interests anyone?

Trimet retaliating against class action plaintiff?

There has been recent suspicious management disciplinary action taken against one of the lead plaintiffs in the class action case. It's very troubling to say the least. 

The vague and intentional distortions of the bus operator SOP's in an effort to paint this plaintiff as guilty is astounding.

They continue to omit and provide misleading information in their documentation so they can continue to harass the plaintiff.

Stay tuned for updates. Tidrick law firm is aware of this matter and is investigating appropriately.


CLASS ACTION UPDATE

The next step is the discovery, requesting documents and taking depositions. That process should take approximately 4-5 months.

The number of plaintiffs is now around 500. The time to be party to this lawsuit has expired. (if you did not sign on you will not be eligible for any damages if they are awarded)

Class action details HERE!

Another day, another MAX delay

PENNY LANE case coming to a theater near us


Penny Lane
SO, my court date is on February 6th at 9:15... if you wanna come.
room 3000 on the third floor, 1900 SW 4th Ave.
( I was sent the entire report and Ali Farah said "Rachal Falls was on board train at Washington Park when contacted. Rachal Falls showed valid pass but continues to disrupt my job. Rachal Falls asked why TriMet bother people who work hard and make their life harder. I told Rachal Falls that I am doing my job. However, Rachal Falls was very aggressive and used inappropriate language. I asked to provide her ID and she refused. I called for police assistance and police arrived at Kings Hill."

That's a complete lie. I was NOT aggressive, I did NOT use "inappropriate language". He just made it 100 times easier to win my case, considering I have all of it on video.

And people are siding with a liar. HA-HA-HA.

Trimet union busting contractor First Transit is HORRIBLE

Dumping people off miles from home. Yet the idiots in charge of TRIMET let them get away with murder, just like they themselves get away with

EVERYONE FREAKING OUT ABOUT TRIMET UNFUNDED LIABILITY

We know why that is right? Bus drivers make easy targets for the oligarchs. It's easy to destroy a bunch of bus driver benefits. 

But guess what, CITY OF PORTLAND unfunded liability is 3 BILLION DOLLARS and nobody is freaking out about that! Maybe we can build another useless bridge

Tristapo buster!

Chew your ticket with plenty of saliva before handing to Tristapo for inspection!


Bruce Hansen of ATU 757 responds to state audit

State’s TriMet Audit Report Released to the Public

Today, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office released its TriMet Audit Report to the public. TriMet’s front line employees and their union, ATU 757, are grateful to the legislators who called for the audit and to the Secretary of State who supported conducting it. The audit presented an historical opportunity to get to the heart of the critical issues that brought the agency’s performance to the attention of state lawmakers. Upon initial review, it appears that opportunity has, unfortunately, fallen short of its potential.
“I think the disclaimer on the front page says it all,” said ATU president Bruce Hansen. “It reads: ‘...due to the large scope of the request and the short time frame, we could not fully develop and verify our findings.’

Beware of so called 'union supported' health care agents

Apparently they are peddling some sort of prescription drug coverage and representing themselves as sponsored by the union, however they are not!

Neils Bullshit

McFarlane said he is committed to improving union relations, improving lagging maintenance on the MAX light-rail lines and taking every other recommendation in the audit seriously. In fact, he said, the agency has already started addressing several issues cited by state auditors.(hahaha)

At the same time, he said he believes sinking public approval of TriMet is the result of non-riders hearing “a lot of the noise” about various controversies at the agency.(right all the broken down max trains, late and missing buses are just a figment of imagination)
"TriMet is an amazing system," McFarlane said. "All you have to do is talk to riders about the quality of the service we provide." (Neil is not reading the tweets obviously)

TriMet audit: Oregon lawmaker promises to keep getting 'answers' from transit agency | OregonLive.com

Bruce Hansen and Neil Mcfarlane on OPB

With my always enlightening commentary (don't miss Mcfarlane's brilliant hijacking of the conversation into the subject of unfunded liability)

Portland, you're being 'played' again

Once again we see the manipulation by our beloved government, who is so concerned for our well being, using its power via the media to shape the minds of sheep.

So the 'audit' is over, and what is the big headline to come out of it? 
FINANCIAL CRISIS, FINANCIAL CRISIS, FINANCIAL CRISIS

Play it over and over and over. That was not the intent of the 'audit' to tell us something we already know but here we go again. 

PORTLAND, you can't believe anything that our government is telling us


THE LIE NEVER ENDS




Our government says Trimet employee health care will be the end of Trimet 
because it has created an $800 million funding gap
 

The same government  hands over $1.5 billion for a light rail line to a town of 20,000 which includes a brand new bridge will only Trimet and some bicyclists will ever get to use. This will require Trimet, who already has a funding gap to increase the number of people that they will have to pay for.




THE 'AUDIT' OF TRIMET WAS ORDERED AFTER THE KOIN STORY ON TRIMET MANAGEMENT

Yet the audit completely avoided the entire conversation of the Trimet 'secret raises'

Watch the Gianola report which created such an uproar the legislature ordered the audit.

The Secretary of State should be sanctioned for avoiding the topic that she was sent in to investigate!

BULLSHIT AUDIT

In this ridiculous chart we will see how these auditors (term used loosely) make the case that mechanics and operators wages rose up to 10% but the administrators went down by 6%.

 Needless to say they don't go into the methodology for figuring this  but the old 'adjusted for inflation' argument sticks its head out. 

Now I don't remember Mcfarlane taking any pay cuts, or Lomax, or Auxier or any other executive taking any pay-cuts. As a matter of fact it was proven that Mcfarlane had been giving out raises while he was saying he had pay freezes. He got around the pay freeze thing by changing job descriptions.

The 'audit' completely avoided the topic of Mcfarlanes unethical stealing his raise last year by hiding it in the contingency budget at the same time he cut service and raised fares.

The covering up of the Mcfarlane secret raises ends any credibility that this phony audit may have had.

Neils Bullshit-the whitewash

“We are an organization that embraces the concept of continuous improvement, recognizing there is always the opportunity to do better. That is why we welcomed your assessment,” said McFarlane.

This whole audit is nothing but hot air, nothing in it compels the dick head in charge to do anything.
What a waste of tax payers money.

Read the Trimet BULLSHIT HERE

TRIMET SITE GOES DOWN AND STAYS DOWN

KGW video report-earlier a MAX train broke down, again. Trimet continues to fail in its mission but nobody is ever held accountable for any of that

Ran into John Copic at the courthouse today

And he was not happy to see me. As a matter of fact he shook his head in a 'no' disgusted fashion and walked away from me without answering my question.

Apparently he is disgusted with me for standing by Lane Jensen.

Sorry Mr Copic but I view you and the court as the real enemy here, not Lane Jensen. You represent a government who's intent it is to silence dissent by any means possible.  You use severe threats of long prison sentences to scare defendants into taking questionable plea deals.

No sir, you are the one that needs to be feared by the average American, not Lane Jensen. Any poor slob that gets caught in your web will be ground down under the wheels of 'justice' until they capitulate to what you want.

Joe Rose article on the audit which is nothing but a whitewash

The overriding example of collusion is this:

Last year, McFarlane came under fire for quietly dipping into a rainy day fund to hand out raises to managers and other non-union employees. He defended the move by saying they had gone too long without a pay increase. The audit shows the average earnings of an administrative employee has fallen 6 percent since 2006, while those of maintenance workers and operators has grown by 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively.


That is an explicit defense of Mcfarlanes raiding of the treasury and the statement makes no sense. Who exactly at Trimet got pay cuts? And putting six figure executives into a 'hardship' category brings into question everything else in this so called audit.It's just another white wash, as most of us knew it would be. The 'audit' also failed to disclose that retirees such as myself have seen a 25% decline in  our pensions and a $3000 increase in our medical expense self pay.
The entire audit is nothing but a whitewash and another in a long line of disappointments. 

State audit finds TriMet needs to take 'extremely urgent' money, safety problems more seriously | OregonLive.com

Trimet Director Prosser Lies about state audit

Now it's been clarified that Trimet got a 'draft' of the report which is basically the actual report before editing for spelling and grammer

Trimet FAIL

All those IT people and yet the can't keep it together, how bout some more 'market adjustments' for those incompetent executives


GOVERNMENT COLLUSION

BRUCE HANSEN OF ATU 757 WILL RESPOND TO THE TRIMET AUDIT ON OPB RADIO’S “THINK OUT LOUD” - WED @ NOON. OPB show host Allison Frost will be joined by workers’ union president Bruce Hansen, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown and TriMet GM Neil McFarlane to discuss the findings of the top-do-bottom agency audit that was ordered by the state legislature last Fall. (OF NOTE: TriMet has had a copy of the report for a month; as of this post, neither Bruce Hansen or the Union have received it.) For those who can’t listen in live: Transit Voice will post a link when the show is uploaded in the program archive (link below).

Collective bargaining and the Fair Labor Standards Act

As you know we have a similiar case pending right now in Federal Court so I watch how these cases get decided. This is a SUPREME COURT decision which has MAJOR implications.

In this case the court decided that the Fair Labor Standards Act did not apply because 'changing clothes' is not protected and:

Although safety glasses, earplugs, and a respirator do not fit the interpretation of “clothes,” the relevant question is whether the period at issue can, on the whole, be fairly characterized as “time spent in changing clothes or washing.” In this case, time spent donning and doffing safety glasses and earplugs was minimal.

The case we have pending is not MINIMAL time but adds an hour to each work day for every bus/train driver that is compensated at pennies on the dollar. This is a good ruling for our case

Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp. US Supreme Court Center

Portland 'Creep' a fantasy?

This is an astounding read ........It's Fail, Fail and more Fail followed by more failure.   The Portland way. Is it any wonder the people of Clackamas County, Clark County and now the SW Corridor are rejecting Portland's Metro plans?  The same plan has been attacking every community in the region.  Click for the whole story and pics.  Not a word about the MAX Station at Foster Rd. So sad. 

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-21792-razed_confused.html

Razed & Confused

The city poured $96 million into reviving Lents. Where’s the rebirth of this East Portland neighborhood?

Monday, January 27, 2014

TRISTAPO INTIMIDATION

LANE GETS IT-CLASSIC TWEETS

The "Mossy Pancake" bridge

Henry says MOSSY PANCAKE!
News at 11 - self-described historian and former director of Oregon Historical Society says that bridge name has to be historically significant.

I'm not surprised that they were unable to think out of the box. They are, after all, the same sort of people that came up with the names for all of the other boringly named landmarks around the state.

My son named the rabbit at his preschool "Mossy Pancake". If the bridge were named "Mossy Pancake" then at least everyone would smile when they see it. People would look to Portland and think "what a fun name - doesn't Portland have such a great sense of humor?". Think of "big pink". Instead we're going to get another "Marquam Bridge" -- where nobody even remembers the name, no matter what the "historical significance."

Does anyone remember the historically significant names of the two OHSU tram cars? There was a big naming process over that too. If they would have been named Tom & Jerry, everyone would remember (and smile). Instead it's as if they were never named at all.

Every time I go over the new bridge, I'm going to make sure to make a loud comment on the bus "WOW THE MOSSY PANCAKE BRIDGE SURE IS LOOKING GREAT TONIGHT." Maybe it'll catch on, and that will be my contribution.

Trimet propaganda doesn't hold up to scrutiny

Interestingly, despite its reputation as a multi-modal mecca for gridlock-weary commuters, Portland doesn't land in the report's top 10 cities with the lowest percentage of households that own a vehicle.
In fact, even with its superior highway system, urban sprawl and water-and-hill geographical challenges, the Seattle area continues to be the Northwest champion on that front, with nearly 17 percent of residents getting around without an automobile.
In Portland, which is 11th on the list of 30 largest cities, about 15 percent of households don't own a vehicle, an increase of less than one percent more since the last Michigan study in 2007.

Study: Seattle still beats Portland when it comes to households giving up cars (poll) | OregonLive.com

Too many stupid comments

I changed my mind MAX is right, no more anonymous comments. With an account we can at least track the comments of individual commentators and I don't really have time or energy to moderate comments in any sort of ongoing basis anyway but the quantity of ignorant comments has forced this change. Sorry to those who were not abusing this blog.