* Organized labor will not back a transit bill that doesn’t address the upcoming fiscal cliff. And, so far, this bill has no revenue source(s) attached to it…
Anyway, tell us what you think about what’s in the bill.
…Adding… From Isabel: Some excerpts from the transit reform plan…
The Authority shall appoint the members of the Transition Working Group by April 30, 2026.
The Service Boards shall work closely with the Authority and provide all relevant data and information necessary to complete the transition plan. The Authority shall have access to and the right to examine and copy all books, documents, papers, records, or other source data of a Service Board relevant to any information submitted under this Section.
The transition plan shall evaluate and propose a transition plan for each of the following:
- Establishing a new process and coordination between the Authority and the Service Boards to create the 5-Year Capital Program. This process shall be established by January 1, 2027.
- The creation of a universal fare instrument and necessary coordination between the Authority and the Service Boards. This process shall be established by July 1, 2027.
- The development and deployment of a police force, as outlined under Section 2.11. A police force transition plan shall be completed by January 1, 2028, outlining steps already taken to create a new Transit Police Force department and future plans for hiring, training, and technology to be used. This report shall also include the organizational structure of the police force, the number of officers, detectives, and other staff employed.
As part of the development of the transition plan, the Authority and the hired third party shall evaluate the existing policy processes performed by the Authority and each of the Service Boards and develop a process for efficient and effective operations by both the Authority and the Service Boards for:
- procurement, with special consideration given to the consolidation of bulk fuel purchases, information technology services, consulting contracts, and a subscriptions;
- service planning;
- grant administration;
- marketing;
- lobbying;
- communication, media, and graphics design;
- governmental and legislative affairs; and
- information technology.
More on the police force…
The Cook County Sheriff shall establish a multijurisdictional NITA Law Enforcement Task Force led by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in cooperation with the Chicago Police Department, the METRA Police, the Illinois State Police, the Sheriff’s Offices of other counties in the metropolitan region, and other municipal police departments in the metropolitan region. Law enforcement agencies within the metropolitan region not explicitly named in this subsection may participate on the Task Force upon request of the Cook County Sheriff.
The Task Force shall be created under an intergovernmental agreement and be dedicated to combating violent and other types of crime with the primary mission of preservation of life and reducing the occurrence and the fear of crime on the public transit system of the Northern Illinois Transit Authority. The objectives of the Task Force shall include, but shall not be limited to, reducing and preventing violent crimes and other illegal activities. The Task Force shall also assist and coordinate with the Chief Transit Safety Officer in the Chief Transit Safety Officer’s efforts to enforce the Authority’s and Service Boards’ codes of conduct and to solve quality of life issues for transit riders and staff.
(c) The Task Force may develop and acquire information, training, tools, and resources necessary to implement a data-driven approach to policing, with an emphasis on:
(1) preventing violent crime in known hotspots, property crime, and code of conduct violations that are crimes; and
(2) identifying and arresting persons accused of violent crime. […]
The Task Force shall recognize and use best practices of community-oriented policing and procedural justice. The Task Force may develop potential partnerships with faith-based and community organizations to achieve its goals, including, but not limited to, partnering with social service organizations, to assist persons experiencing homelessness obtain shelter and other services and to assist persons experiencing a mental health or behavioral crisis in connecting with appropriate services.
…Adding… WTTW…
The bill calls for NITA’s board to have five directors appointed by the mayor of Chicago, five appointed by the governor, five appointed by the Cook County Board president, and one director each appointed by the board chairs of Kane, Lake, McHenry, DuPage and Will counties. They must have “diverse and substantial relevant experience and expertise for overseeing the planning, operation, and funding of a regional transportation system.”
And, it will lessen the onerous farebox recovery ratio requirement, which mandates that some 50% of operating revenue come from passenger fares — far higher than peer agencies around the U.S. The bill sets an initial benchmark of 25%.
The measure calls for developing a plan by Jan. 1, 2028, to create a dedicated police force. It also creates a transit ambassador program, an effort many passengers and transit advocates have clamored for as a way to improve rider experience, as well as assisting people sheltering on the system. And it gives NITA the authority to participate in transit-oriented development, a move many transit advocates had hoped to see. […]
The language of the bill is clear about delegation of authority, saying that the NITA “has ultimate responsibility for providing the metropolitan region with a high-quality public transportation system” and “shall have the final responsibility for allocating duties among” CTA, Metra and Pace.
…Adding… Subscribers got the heads-up this morning. Tribune…
For nearly five years, the Chicago Transit Authority paid a small group of employees to stay home and not work at least two days a week, a state watchdog found.
The employees in question worked in the agency’s “vault operations” unit, which is responsible for processing money taken from CTA fareboxes. Those workers could not actually perform any of their assigned duties from home, but were nevertheless assigned to work remotely at least two days a week since the beginning of the pandemic, continuing to do so even after the agency-wide return to office date in May 2022, according to a report from the Office of Executive Inspector General.
A total of 10 employees were paid just under $1.13 million for days they spent not working since the start of the pandemic, the OEIG found. The bulk of the payments were made between the onset of the pandemic and the agency’s return-to-office date in May 2022, but the employees were paid $303,932 for remote work between May 2022 and Feb. 1 of this year. […]
“Although paying employees may have been necessary in the very beginning of the pandemic, the CTA’s payment for no work continued week after week for five years,” the report said. “No justifiable reason for this continued payment was provided in any CTA documents or by any of the relevant CTA employees interviewed.”
