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Constantine appoints leaders from across the county to Regional Transit Task Force

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King County Executive
Dow Constantine


Constantine appoints leaders from across the county to Regional Transit Task Force

Summary

King County Executive Dow Constantine today named 28 regional and community leaders to a new Regional Transit Task Force that will advise on the future of King County Metro Transit services.

Story

King County Executive Dow Constantine today named 28 regional and community leaders to a new Regional Transit Task Force that will advise on the future of King County Metro Transit services.

“I’ve asked this cross-section of regional leaders and transit users to engage in a discussion about how we can best deliver transit service for all parts of the county within the resources we have,” said Executive Constantine. “I deliberately sought a group of people who are willing to put aside political divisions and think creatively about how to plan a transit system that will serve us well in the future.”

Constantine said the conversation will include development of a comprehensive vision for what the regional transit system should look like in the future as well as criteria for systematically growing or reducing the transit system, depending on the revenues available.

The geographically balanced 28-member task force includes a mix of elected officials and representatives of business, labor, education, and human service agencies, along with riders.

“Our goal was to pull together a task force that was diverse and represented the broad perspectives across our county—from students to elderly people, from business to labor, from Seattle to Maple Valley, and more,” said Metropolitan King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, sponsor of the motion creating the panel. “The Regional Transit Task Force is charged with developing a regional vision to shape our transit system for the future and address the revenue shortfalls Metro faces. I think these individuals, with input from the larger community, are up to that task.”

The task force is being asked to develop policy options for discussion by July and to adopt final policy recommendations by September 2010.

Regional Transit Task Force

Category

Name

Representing

Accessible services

Jane Kuechle

AtWork

Economic development

Kate Joncas

West - Downtown Seattle Assoc

Economic development

Christine Hoffman

East - Redmond Chamber

Economic development

Tom Pierson

South - Federal Way Chamber

Education

Larry Yok

South - Highline Comm. College

Education

Josh Kavanagh

West – Univ. of Washington

Elected official

Suzette Cooke

South - Kent

Elected official

Noel Gerken

South - Maple Valley

Elected official

Tom Rasmussen

West - Seattle

Elected official

Chris Eggen

West - Shoreline

Elected official

Grant Degginger

East - Bellevue

Elected official

Fred Butler

East - Issaquah

Environmental

Rob Johnson

Transportation Choices Coalition

Environmental

Chuck Ayers

Cascade Bicycle Club

Good government

James Kelly

Urban League of Metro. Seattle

Organized labor

Carl Jackson

Amalgamated Transit Union

Organized labor

David Freiboth

King County Labor Council

Puget SoundRegional Council

Bob Drewel

PSRC

Riders

Sue Blazak

South

Riders

Carla Saulter

West

Riders

Shiv Batra

East

Social services

Estela Ortega

West - El Centro de la Raza

Social services

Lynn Moody

East - Hopelink

Trip reduction

Liz Warman

South – The Boeing Company

Trip reduction

Jim Stanton

East - Microsoft

Transportation expert

Steve Marshall

CascadiaCenter

Transportation expert

Jared Smith

Parsons Brinckerhoff

Transit Advisory Committee

Ed Miller

Transit Advisory Committee



King County Executive
Dow Constantine
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