Friday, September 30, 2016

Trimet screwing another employee

From Facebook

So just in case my fellow operators dont already know what kind of company you work for . Let me tell you these asshats are actually intending on suspending an operator who was assaulted on the bus a while back. just found this out tonite im so freaking disgusted with the bullshit that are managers are pulling .

you can bet i will fight this with everything i got . Including getting the media involved . so lesson here for all you if you should be assaulted while you are driving let it be kown that trimet doesnt give a rats ass about you. and god forbid you defend your self your fucked.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

From the Driver Side: I've Hit the (Figurative) Wall

From the Driver Side: I've Hit the (Figurative) Wall: The path ahead is foggy, unknown, but passable. It's been six months since my last vacation. Luckily, my wife and I were able to es...

Monday, September 26, 2016

Trimet spends $50k to get back $3k from union employee

And here they go again. And again the elitists in control of the Portland transit agency show how unethical and horrible they really are

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Friday, September 23, 2016

Former Trimet exec Steve Banta lands on his feet

I knew Steve Banta from my time at tri-Met. I liked him very much. He was one of the more reachable executives  who hadn't completely lost his humanity to his ego like so many of these executives do. I even dropped in to say hi to him once when I was in Phoenix And we had a very nice visit. So I was sad to hear that he had gotten embroiled in this spending controversy at Valley Metro. 

Let me say  that what Steve did was less egregious than what Neil Mcfarlane did in 2012. In 2012, after Trimet had been pleading poverty, Mcfarlane cut bus service, raised fares to among the highest in the country, and also abrogated the  promises made  to union retirees , McFarlane, conspiring with the puppet board of directors, hid himself and his pals $1,000,000 in raises. Raises that have been compounding ever year since 2012 and will continue to compound costing 10's of millions over time. 
Steve Banta didn't raise fares in Phoenix.
Steve Banta didn't cut routes in Phoenix.
Steve Banta didn't cut employees/retirees health insurance.  

The difference is that McFarlane is in Portland and Banta was in Phoenix. In Portland you can get away with this sort of legalized theft. In Arizona you can't. 

But it appears that Steve has landed on his feet complete with a generous compensation package that all of these executives seem to walk away with. He supposedly is still under Federal and state investigation but we all know how those things go. They just wait a year then say there was no criminal wrongdoing. I don't believe that Banta had criminal intent here. Actually I know he didn't have any criminal intent.
 I think he was living like many of these Transit  executives live. I've read dozens of stories like this over the past 5 years. 
 

To quote Frank from season 2 of HBO's TRUE DETECTIVE on public transportation: "this is the last pork barrel left outside of defense". 

I'm sure Steve will continue In public transportation and wish him the best of luck 




Thursday, September 22, 2016

Kelsey picks long time Trimet manager as Lomax's replacement

Doug Kelsey (fired from his job in Vancouver Canada) has decided that Jay Jackson is the best person in North America to take Shelly Lomax's position. (Whatever it's called now, I think it's 'executive director'. career technocrats like to give themselves impressive sounding titles)

Lomax was sent out on the road after a brand new job called 'cheif of staff' was created just for her. Must be nice to be part of a class of humans who can create jobs for you at will. These are not just jobs, these are nice fat pork positions. Shellys supposed to go around the country and see what other places are doing and bring back her knowledge to try met. (Oink oink, hows that for pork) Your tax dollars at work 

So after a so called 'exhaustive search' Kelsey selected Jackson. Most of the people i've known are not fans of Jay Jackson. It appears the rule of thumb for tri-met management is to make sure you have managers who are not well liked by the people that actually do the work. Jackson fits right in. 

Jackson is a long time company man who does what he is told. I had minimal interaction with him when i was at Trimet but the interaction I did have with him (grievance appeal) was unpleasant. He's another one of those people who is very good at pretending to be your pal while positioning the knife to stab you in the back 


Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Toxic toilet paper at Forest grove break room causing irritation

It turns out that it's the toilet paper at Forest Grove break room!
Possible sabatoge?
This problem has been reported several times and has not been resolved as of the date of the post.
From what I understand Bruce Hansen handed Robert Romo 2 rolls of the poisonous paper demanding action!
Who knows what kind of paper these porta potty businesses are supplying.
I bet it ain't Charmin

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Trimet f-ks up the bus 71

They did the exact same thing to the 12!
 

The plight of the Trimet retirees

Certain people with certain levels of influence had lead the public to believe that we Trimet union retirees were getting the "richest benefits in the country" and  that somehow we got more than we should have.
As a result Trimet retirees who were ill lost substantial amounts of their pension benefits.
 The plight of the Trimet retirees


Who's behind the 'yes on Tigard light rail' initiative

Well, that's easy, everybody who stands to make money off it of course!
Including Neil Mcfarlane himself!

Mcfarlane brings bullshit to new heights

Monday, September 12, 2016

Dispatch links

It should be obvious to people that have been listening to our scanner links that all these links are only temporarily available.

Clackastani's fighting the light rail monsters

Donate, volunteer, post yard signs, make calls.
Let us know how you can help.
Email Art crino9850@comcast.net
Or send a donation.
Art Crino, Director
Oregonians for Affordable Transportation Solutions
PO Box 23325 Tigard Or, 97281
NoTaxForMax.com

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Trimet engages me on twitter

This was a pretty interesting twitter debate

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Deacon in Blue Facebook page has been blocked

Unknown what the reasons where. It's Facebook and they do shit like that