Summary

Panel created to provide a vision for the future of transit in King County to present recommendations to Council and Executive

Story

The Metropolitan King County Council’s Committee of the Whole will hear from members of the County’s Regional Transit Task Force, the panel of regional stakeholders created to discuss the future of Metro Transit.

Monday, November 8
9:00 a.m.
Council Chambers
10th floor, King County Courthouse
Third and James Streets

County Executive Dow Constantine will also attend the briefing, which will be given by representatives of the Task Force:

• Kent Mayor Suzette Cook,
• Puget Sound Regional Council CEO Bob Drewel,
• Rob Johnson, Transportation Choices Coalition,
• Jane Kuechle, At Work!
• Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen,
• Jim Stanton, Microsoft,
• Larry Yok, Highline Community College.

The representatives and Task Force Facilitator John Howell will present members with the results of their work and provide the seven recommendations adopted by the Task Force.

The Regional Transit Task Force was created in response to a sharp drop in the sales tax revenues that support bus service led to a projected loss of 600,000 service hours for Metro Transit in 2012-2014. In the adopted 2010 King County Budget, the Council directed the County Executive to convene a task force of regional stakeholders to discuss the future of Metro Transit. They were charged with developing a comprehensive vision for what the regional transit system should look like in the future as well as looking at criteria for systematically growing or reducing the transit system, depending on revenues available.

The 28 member panel was a geographically balanced mix of elected officials, representatives of labor, business and other regional interests, and rider interests including human service agencies, educational and commuter interests, as well as riders. The Task Force began meeting this spring and completed their work last month.

The Council’s Committee of the Whole is the only standing committee on which all nine members serve. It considers legislation and policy issues of interest to the entire Council.

Watch all Council proceedings held in chambers LIVE on King County TV on Comcast and Broadstripe Cable on channel 22