Why can’t our transit trust get the facts on county’s plans?

A Mount Vesuvius of frustration erupted last week as the trust that helps fund a transit expansion known as the Smart Plan lamented that it couldn’t learn about how our tax money will really be used.

It’s about time the trust is told – and county officials too, before it’s too late to make a difference.

Lava from the eruption spread broadly after the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, which in June pointed 28 questions at Miami-Dade’s transportation department about future operation of the South Dade Corridor Bus Rapid Transit it is funding for $100 million, was stonewalled and got no answers.

The money comes from the half percent tax that you and I pay on purchases in order to add transit. When voters approved the tax, mistrust of the county led to the ballot question promising that a trust would pore over all spending of that tax income to insure proper use.

We have the trust – 15 thoughtful members – but if the county won’t answer their questions before money is spent, how can they assess just how our tax money is being used? That’s what set their blood boiling as they met last week.

Discussion began as former Cutler Bay Mayor Peggy Bell, who said “my concerns are numerous” about the South Dade plan, noted that “we have heard at our last meeting that there were operational things happening that … I don’t believe that we were aware of.”

One of those “things” was the shocking revelation that Bus Rapid Transit that was supposed to whisk nonstop through intersections all day would not in fact do that. That service level was the basis of the mandate by county commissioners to gain a formal gold standard rating by an industry institute. That revelation had spawned the formal query from the trust seeking details.

Now, a month later, Ms. Bell asked a transportation department representative “Can you discuss at all the routes at this point?” and was told no. In fact, it was a no to all 28 trust questions for two more months.

That’s when Vesuvius – in the person of trust Chairman Oscar Braynon – erupted.

His damning words, spoken calmly, sent lava flowing broadly and require action to ensure rapid transit’s future from the viewpoint of the trust that for decades has been overseeing the spending.

As he said it:

“I’m extremely disappointed that [after] 10 years of planning that the department couldn’t take 30 days and present to the trust an operational concept or plan we’ve talked about the South Dade corridor seriously in the past eight years and that there was planning prior to that.

“I would think that somebody in the department within a 30-day period could prepare a 20-minute presentation of an operational plan for something that you’ve been working on for eight years.

“I don’t know whether it’s intentional to not inform this trust, or whether the department just says we don’t care enough to inform this trust, or maybe that the questions we’re asking are not – how do I put this? – out. Are we asking questions that are sitting in a closet, the answers are hidden in a closet that nobody wants to answer and that’s why we’re being delayed – or stalled?

“We won’t have another meeting for 60 days and I know the department is going to be struggling with budget issues in September and August. When we come back in September I don’t know what’s going to change between now and September that it couldn’t be told to us today.

“I’m very disappointed that we don’t see [department] director [Eulois Cleckley in the room], extremely. We haven’t seen him in – six months? – and it’s getting…
“We’ve tried to work with the department, and it just seems like it’s always pulling teeth on tough questions. I don’t know, maybe this gold standard issue is something that the department doesn’t want to discuss now because it’s not going to be gold standard. It’s like the kid who wants to hide what he doesn’t want his parents to see.

“Does the commission know that we’re not doing a gold standard? Does the mayor know that we’re not doing a gold standard?

“Those are real issues that – I don’t see why in 30 days you couldn’t come up here to say this – I’m talking to the entire department, especially the director. He says he wants to work with us, but you can’t tell us where stops are going to be on something you’ve been working on for 10 years? It really makes me wonder: does the department have the capability to continue with the Smart Plan?

“Where are we going with the North Corridor? When I became the chair there was a cone of silence [as proposals were sought for North Corridor transit]. Nobody wanted to talk about it because of the cone of silence. Then that procurement issue got thrown out. We haven’t heard a single word about the North Corridor since the procurement issue got discarded. And before that we couldn’t talk about it.

“Now we’ve got similar issues with Baylink [from Downtown Miami to Miami Beach]. The procurement issue gets thrown out, the department is kind of hush mouth on it. It’s very disappointing.

“In 1978 this county voted for rapid transit – 1978. How long ago was that, mayor [Bell]? – 45 years ago. I’m 70 years old now. I’m afraid I’m not going to see it. I’m not going to see the completion of even the initial [People’s Transportation Plan]. I worked up here 20 years ago when we passed the half-penny to say we’re going to build 80 miles of rapid transit. The department has three miles of rapid transit in 20 years … and we want to get to 80. I’m not going to make it.

“I sure hope that something changes quickly because we go through a period when the department needs funding from the half penny [that the trust controls] to operate.

“We come up with the Smart Plan and that’s been dumbed down. We don’t have the North Corridor, we don’t have the Baylink, we have nothing going east and west, the South Corridor is being chopped in half and nobody wants to address it within the 30-day period.

“I don’t know whether the transportation trust really has a role, because we sit here and we have meetings and we don’t get answers and nothing is getting built. It’s becoming discouraging as a citizen, a citizen who’s been in this community for 40 years. It hurts.”

It hurts us all, Mr. Braynon. Transportation improvements are vital. Virtually everyone agrees on that. So when the man in the driver’s seat for spending the transit money complains, it’s not a frivolous comment from someone who doesn’t know. Mr. Braynon knows – too well.

So, where are Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the 13 county commissioners? Mr. Braynon is pointing his finger their way. They need to act promptly before the lava overflows onto them.