Sneak Peek On My Rather... Abstract... Board Meeting Speech (Pre-Approval)

Hello, I am Cameron Johnson, 16 year old represneting OPAL Bus Riders Unite and to some extent the Mt. Scott Community Center Teen Volunteer Corps. And I brought with me some perturbing news.

Based off of blog commenters, something I observe very often, I have a feeling that the TriMet bond measure is going to be shot down, and not just shot down, but shot down by those with a vengeance.

I'm going to quote a blogger's comment who I will not name who said something that made me want to punch in a wall. He said, and I quote "Like to help you out TriMet, but you kind of lost your chance when you cut my bus line. Funny how it comes around, isn't it?"

Now while this absolutely disgusts me for two reasons, one being that vengeance is a stupid and useless thing, and two being that this guy's childish vengeance is part of what is costing me, someone unable to vote, new buses and bus stops, it shows a sign. It shows that you're changing the public's view of you into negative, and that is going to cost you.

Three things have been ticking riders off lately. The first is the service cuts and fare increasements, the second is the union situation which I know very little about, and third, the focus on light rail. And before you say "Oh this is only one commenter, how bad could it be?" Oh, it's bad. It's really bad. I read about 50 similar comments on ONE news article that read the same. There were 78 commenters. 50 is more than half of 78. If this is a sample, I'd recommend you fish out the white flag out of the basement.

People have been giving you reasons to stop service cuts because it impacts them. To be critical of you, you frankly haven't listened to those reasons. So I'm giving you a reason for yourselves to stop service cuts. People are your backbone, and when you hurt them, they're inclined to hurt you back. And thus begins a vicious cycle.

So how do you react? Some people, including me, fear that you will simply see this as a sign that bus service does not matter and when funding gets low, bus service will be first in line for the guillotine. I urge you, for all that is sane, do not do that. If you do that, you're no better than these vengeful commenters, and the vicious cycle will rage on until there is nothing left for either party. When you recover the body of the TriMet bond measure, learn from this loss. Learn that if you fire the first shot, you have started a war. If you are the first to make peace, you have not only ended the war, but unskewed the view of those on you. It's only beneficial to everyone.

Besides, I was never one to like war anyways, well, outside of video games. But that's another story...

You'll Not Oft Be "Board" At This Meeting!

Ok, if anyone wants to stand up and shoot me now for that pun, I invite you to- AFTER I finish telling you about the board meeting- IN TWEET FORM. I posted tweet-notes on my twitter page (well, just posted random thoughts to store for later on my page) And I'll lengthen them out in detail for you.

Tweet #1

'99.9% of our bus drivers know and follow the rules'-Neil. But it's the .1% that is magnified

Neil McFarlane touched up a bit on the Kindle Driver. He went on and on in a sort of Merry-Go-Round sermon about how it was unacceptable and he was on administrative leave, but he did manage to throw in the above statement, which leaves me to wonder "Why on earth do all the news in the city focus on that .1%?"

Tweet 2

A board member called accounting and audit exciting. I wouldn't know, I was too busy reading American Idol news.

Well, in reality, I spelled reading wrong, cause It's a phone. And right about this time, the Finance and Audit Committee came up for a very long report... right about then I zoned out and read Google News and so bored I was I read up on American Idol. Did I mention I was bored?

Anyway, at the end, Hakeem Olanrewaju (and yes I cut and paste the name) was telling one of the reporting peoples (doesn't feel right to call them reporters) that they were wrong about Accounting and Audit being boring. I had to hold in the urge to laugh. Trust me, I do a lot of math when making my plans and it's rarely fun or exciting. Olanrewaju sure needs to get out.

@trimet sure is mysterious about how much less of a chance buses get because of Light rail Buildings

Simply, Lynn Lehrbach asked how much the real estate TriMet was buying for the MAX was and Neil refused to tell him in public. But that's OK! My trusty friends at OPAL sorta knew the answer and told everyone later as part of their speech. (A total of $52,000,000 so far in 2010, don't quote me on that)

Jesus, we could get 100,000 people against Milwaukie max and it'd still be 7 ayes

Yep, that's classic TriMet. A guy comes up and makes a passionate, heartfelt, and hard-hitting speech about not buying said property on the MAX, and they voted 7 ayes quick as lightining. Half the room groaned, but did they care? No! Sure not, they just brushed it off like nothing happened and no bus service was going to be destroyed because of a building they were gonna destroy anyway for a few hundred feet of track.

As my English Friend Max Corby once said "I'm allergic to Bullsh**. Achoo."

In fact, that's what the whole agenda is! Rail, rail, rail, and replacement engines for our 1700s!

Pretty Self-Explanatory. Nothing but rail improvements on the agenda list except replacement engines for the buses. Which I was surprised to see pass.

God, Trimet, you make it SOOOOO hard to be an ally.

Also Self explanatory.

Go David Sale, even if I don't follow the religious influences

This guy is an amazing speaker. I mean, I don't like to say anything good came out of the tragic Old Town deaths, but if there was, his ability to speak is. He's definitely one of the best Safety Speakers out there. He spoke with long-time Safety Advocate Darla Sturdy and they both were amazing. They took up well over 20 minutes but no one seemed to care. If you want the video, I'd recommend checking Al M's Blog in a day or two from the post time for his full speech, because it is hard to describe in its entirety. I will say that I agree with most of it, even if I don't pray out loud during my speech. Was a nice touch though.

Just gave my speech. Rick spent half of it taking with someone. Thanks a lot.

Yeah, nice, huh? I was Thanking the board for their enactment of the Making A Difference Campaign and talking on educating youth about the bus system, and Rick spent nearly the whole time talking with the secretary. I nearly stopped and waited for him. It was annoying, and to add to it, I don't think I did an overwhelmingly good job at my speech. I also didn't like being told to stay under 3 minutes. I KNOW THAT. I plan ahead for being the only one who has to follow that.

Rick is trying so hard to shut Michael Levine up. SO HARD.

Yep. Mike Levine was giving account on several disabled people's being kicked off of LIFT for things they couldn't help. It went on a bit past 3 minutes, because the other board members were talking with him, and Rick was trying over and over to stop the conversation because, apparently, it was over 3 minutes. Now, as much I respect David Sale and Darla Sturdy, and could hear them talk for an hour, if they get 25 minutes to talk, then have a bit of leniency on the rest of us, all right?

Christ, Rick irritates me.

But the most epic part I didn't get a chance to tweet about.

If I had it'd say

OMG Lew Church and Lynn Lehrbach nearly get into shouting match!

But I may be blowing it out of proportion. I missed half of Lew's Speech during a phone call but when I got back in, I saw Lew walking away, like he had finished. Lynn, who is one of the nicest guys I know, called him back. Lew refused. Lynn simply started shouting out something about how dare he boycott Rick's Cafe, Reedville Cafe. Now, I accidentally read up on this, Ironically while researching Lynn Lehrbach, and I think it was because of their bad food, not because Rick was on the board and therefore Lew hated him and wanted to ruin his life. Lew tried to defend himself, and Lynn kept shouting back. For a bit. Rick himself actually broke in and calmed Lynn down. When the guy you're defending tells you to stop doing so, then that's a bit sobering, and, hey, I'd have stopped too.

All in all, a typical TriMet Board Meeting. One that would make my English Friend have an allergy attack.