Listen to what Michael had to say about the Trimet General Manager
Friday, January 31, 2014
After listening to Mcfarlane on Think Out Loud
Listen to what Michael had to say about the Trimet General Manager
OPAL slams the Trimet elite
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 HERE!
 |
| @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.
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.
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
More lies from #TriMet. @trimet facilitates this hostile environment and Stedman makes it worst. FUCKYOU TM! pic.twitter.com/w9hpVUtMnr
— Daily Cyclist (@DailyCyclist) January 31, 2014Dan 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.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Who's behind the campaign against Ballot Measure 34-210?
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 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
First of the day!! Delays for some blue and green line trains due to mechanical issue at Gresham MAX yard! #trimet #expectdelays #howweroll
— Nonpartisan (@nonpartisantoo) January 30, 2014
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
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
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!
I just watched this hick shove his trimet ticket in his mouth. Lol, wtf.
— fuck. (@JO__RD__AN__) January 30, 2014Bruce 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
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
Trimet dispatch is using hand held radios to communicate with buses
Unfreaking believable Dispatch Here!
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.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
THE 'AUDIT' OF TRIMET WAS ORDERED AFTER THE KOIN STORY ON TRIMET MANAGEMENT
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
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
This whole audit is nothing but hot air, nothing in it compels the dick head in charge to do anything.
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
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
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
Trimet FAIL
All those IT people and yet the can't keep it together, how bout some more 'market adjustments' for those incompetent executives
@trimet This power outage raises concerns about a real crisis. Your servers shouldn't be affected by something as mundane as a power outage.
— JonathanPDX (@JonathanPDX) January 28, 2014Oh, of course @trimet runs its own servers without power backup. Keeping tech up to date is so uncool.
— Isaac Rabinovitch (@isaac32767) January 28, 2014GOVERNMENT COLLUSION
Collective bargaining and the Fair Labor Standards Act
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/
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
Don't know why but trimet transit police scare the crap out of me even though I have a bus pass at all times. They're mean.
— Matt McConnell (@mbop93) January 27, 2014
LANE GETS IT-CLASSIC TWEETS
@AlYourPalster @twjpdx23 stacked is mildly putting it. More like "The system doesn't give two fucks about Lane" #trimet
— Lane Jensen (@lanejensenpdx) January 28, 2014
The "Mossy Pancake" bridge
 |
| Henry says MOSSY PANCAKE! |
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
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
