The sorry state of Trimet operator breakrooms

Attached are photographs taken of TriMet meal and lunch break areas, and show how TriMet is failing to provide clean facilities for its employees.  TriMet's refusal to ensure clean and safe facilities is a disgrace and shows lack of empathy for employees.

View these photographs and ask yourself if you would like to spend your breaks and lunch time in these areas? Just imagine if it was pouring rain or cold outside and you were forced to use these facilities because no other option was available? 

The restroom and break facilities used by Neil McFarlane and Randy Stedman  don’t look like this. They don’t have to smell mold and mildew on a daily basis.  Why should their employees?

Thank you,

Shirley Block

A world run by technocrats looks like this

Trimet attempting end run around voters

The Trimet technocrats, some of the most brilliant technocrats in the USA, have figured out the best way to find money to FEED THE MONSTER is  an end run around the voters by using their extensive crony contacts in the State legislature. Currently the legislator is controlled by DEMOCRATS . The democrats, having had exclusive power for many years have developed an efficient machine which Trimet is an integral component. It is called the LIGHT RAIL MAFIA  and its function is to keep tax dollars flowing to the crony contractors of Oregon.

Federal dollars have dried up so Trimet is looking at its own "tax base" to support its ongoing expansion. Why bother going to the voters when you can get the job done using the contacts already in place.

Elliot Njus told me he wouldn't cover THIS STORY  until it had teeth, which meant until it had a real chance of becoming law. Well here we go folks, Trimet is attempting to institute a withholding tax on every paycheck in the State of Oregon. Will it become law? They have their cronies in place to pass such a law so watch out.

You have to understand, Trimet is a "technocracy"  .Technocrats live in a parallel universe from the citizenry. They are totally unaccountable to voters. The technocrats in charge of Trimet have total control of the agency, there is nothing that any citizen group can do to influence it. They have formed powerful allies over the years, and the Trimet technocrats have made sure the multi millions flowing through there get into the pockets of the right people. It's a brilliant scam. Only with the advent of social media has the secret become public, and the Portland public is slowly waking up to the truth about "their" transit system


Below the break are some comments about this story that are useful

Must be really hard up

Dan Christensen meets Harry Sapporta

Click Here for Dan's Blog


Harry Saporta Part of the Leadership team. He is the “Executive Director of Safety and Security”
Let me start by saying this. I have no axe to grind with the management of Tri-Met. I would hate to do their jobs. I do on the other hand have a strong strong feeling for Safety and the Truth. I always want the truth no matter how that makes me or Tri-Met appear to the public. I believe saying the truth can get you a black eye, but no more black eye’s then you deserve if you are doing something wrong. It also forces you to change in good ways and earns the respect of those around you.
So one Day Harry Sapporta Comes to Powell Garage. He came to us for this most rare of rare visits bringing along the head of the Transit police and a few officers. He came to tell us about safety not talk with us. After his long opening speech touting a miraculous 25% reduction in criminal activity he made the mistake of asking if anyone of us had any questions  before he continued on. The hand full of drivers there at the Garage that afternoon, no more then 12, grumbled in dubious silence.
No one said a thing so he was about to go on when I raised my hand. To this day I kick myself that I did not start recording this on my iPhone. It was obvious he came armed to tell not to listen, He came ready for us to believe and to comply not to be challenged.  
I asked him where did the 25% reduction in Violence come from? Bus or train? He didn’t have the breakdown off hand.

Each Toy Train set comes with its very own replacement bus service! Buy as many as you want! It's tax $$$!

Trimet class-May 1997-Where are they now?

I happened to be digging through my stuff and ran across this picture. Almost 19 years ago now.

#trimet class May 1997 pic.twitter.com/P9jNrQNqQy

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) February 7, 2016

From left to right

Another bus crash

Trimet is part of AGENDA 21

We have a government that routinely lies to us about everything. There is no doubt in my mind that agenda 21 exists and that it can be seen right in Portland Oregon

"Mid County Memo" writes about the latest Trimet capital project

 The Highlights are as follows. As you can see from this blog post the "Trimet industrial complex" has made this decision to extend its tentacles without bothering to ask citizens what they think about it.  These are the technocrats I rant about. These are the un-elected  officials that ruin citizens lives with impunity. These are the people that keep feeding the monster known as the PORTLAND LIGHT RAIL MAFIA

Union employees are NOT invited to apply

What you can see in those pictures is that these jobs are open to "non union employees and outside applicants"

Another Trimet bus crash!

Multi modal ticket machines

Fatal crash. Car driver dies

Trimet mangers gave themselves raises up to 7% after giving union employees 1%

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-argument-against-trimetatu-contract.html#more

Larry Hanley responds to Chris Day

The email came from Chris's personal account but apparently that is not enough, he has to actually 'sign it' for anybody to look at it I guess. Oh they got a million ways to keep things from moving forward. Trimet and the union, they both operate the same

ATU activist Chris Day writes to the international executive board

There has been controversy over termination of  Roy Jennings of C-Tran and ATU757 executive officers continuing to allow him to be a C-Tran representative. This controversy sparked the "preferring of charges" which is allowed under the ATU international constitution section 22 . The preferring of charges has not been allowed to proceed and Chris Day is challenging the decisions that have short circuited this process

Who know's what the Trimet technocrats are really doing with all this money

Comprehensive list of Trimet bureaucratic raises

And this is why Portland does not have world class service. All of these people are doing non direct service work for the district. This is all money that should be going into direct services for riders. This is the problem with American public transportation. A huge bureaucracy has built up around the transit delivery siphoning millions and millions of dollars away from riders

You will have to use the "Ctrl" "+" function to expand your browsers visuals to read the printing
or you can directly download the file HERE

How much are your managers making?

Click on the pics for better viewing

Trimet always trying to figure out ways to give the pencil pushers raises

I really love the way these Trimet technocrats throw around the word "market".

These lying technocrats use to to justify themselves raises and to cut union employees benefits.

Of course they can do whatever they want and that's exactly what they do. Nobody can stop them. They have the puppet board there to make everything "legal"

Here they are trying to convince us that Trimet middle managers are all gonna pick up and head out the door if they don't get raises.
As if these jobs are easy to find. There is no "Market" for public transportation middle managers. 

It's phony market which is controlled solely by the transportation technocrats, they set this market.

What total bullshit

#trimet justifies these raises because they think these jobs are somehow in demand. BULLSHIT

let em go if they want pic.twitter.com/rgJgQxEOOm

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) February 4, 2016

Jared Franz

Jared Franz and OPAL did significant work on Trimet budget issues. In 2012 Trimet managers (all who are still there) represented themselves as being "broke" to the public and their employees. There were serious problems with the budget they presented and OPAL (Jared) called them out on this. These career technocrats, who themselves lost nothing during the so called "great recession" cut employee benefits, cut transit services, and raised fares.  

Lo and behold Trimet technocrats  hid nice hefty raise for themselves, a raise that has compounds  every year, and will eventually cost tax payers millions and millions of tax dollars.

In case you have forgotten your Trimet history as soon as the arbitration was over Trimet all of a sudden start spending money like a drunken sailor. I have a long list of things that the Trimet technocrats  have lied about in the past and will start riposting those things so we can all be reminded that these people  think Trimet is there for their benefit. They play all sorts of games with money most of which are never made public.

 I don't have the kind of unlimited time I used to to go back and find all the various posts I have on Jared and OPAL but here are a couple of Franz presentations to the Trimet board.

Trimet denies OSHA shut down Gateway

Below is today’s response to the media from TriMet’s PIO Team concerning a recent allegation:

The allegation that OSHA has shut down TriMet break rooms is untrue.

TriMet has an annual operator layover refurbishment program. The layover facilities typically include a small break room plus bathrooms. Every year about 2-3 layovers will be refurbished. About six weeks ago, such work began at the break room at our Cleveland Ave MAX Station. The facility was shut down for the renovations. Portable bathrooms were set up for use during the project. As part of the renovations, crews were replacing drywall and noticed signs of ongoing moisture in the wall cavity. Specialists were brought in and the presence of mold was found. The type of mold has yet to be determined. What to do about the mold is on hold right now as we are evaluating if repairs can be made to the building to prevent ongoing moisture issues. That will help us determine whether reconstruction of part or all of the facility is necessary. Again, employees have not been inside the facility since the start of the renovations. Our facilities department is working to get a long-term temporary trailer on site for an operator layover facility while we assess next steps.

The Gateway Transit Center layover facility is also closed at this time as part of the annual layover refurbishment program. No mold has been found or is suspected. Again, this is standard work as part of our refurbishment program.

HOLY SHIT TRIMET!

HOLY SHIT @TRIMET!
can you confirm or deny this please? pic.twitter.com/ez9Q2lEk9p

— AL M (@AlYourPalster) February 2, 2016

At least horses were reliable