Editor,
There are several ways of looking at why Island Transit is in disarray. One is to focus on people. The other is to focus on organizational structure.
When one takes the perspective of focusing on people, such issues as their competence or honesty become most important. It follows from this thinking that if the executive director or the board is replaced with “competent” and honest people, then the problem will be solved.
We are not saying there isn’t merit in this approach sometimes, or even in here, but we think it is also useful to consider an alternative that the structure of the agency did not hold people accountable, and that was inviting mismanagement. One major reason for having supervisors is that people are more inclined to do their jobs if they have good supervision. Human nature can make it so that we take the easiest way out at times.
The board structure for Island Transit is atypical in our experience and is not one that structurally demands good oversight.
It appears it is composed solely of elected officials. And a very small number of them.
A well-rounded board for a public agency would have people with expertise in finance, delivery of the service (in this case, transportation), business, law, law enforcement, etc. Additionally, a board should have some people who are regular consumers of the service.
Functional boards have one or two people who can be pains in the neck. They ask hard questions and are not satisfied with glib answers. A board needs to be large enough that there is a good probability that some people like this will be included.
A board should have committees. For example, most boards should have a finance committee drawn from those on the board who have expertise in accounting, finance, investing, etc. Those committees should meet regularly to review and monitor matters pertaining to their areas of expertise and should regularly report to the full board.
Our proposal is to revise the constitution of Island Transit to provide for a structure that would prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
DAN and VICKY GRAYBILL
Langley
