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Citizen Oversight Panel (COP)

Looking for an important volunteer job?

Sound Transit's Citizen Oversight Panel Needs You

Sound Transit is planning, building and operating a multi-billion dollar mass transit system for people in Central Puget Sound. The agency relies on the oversight and expertise from a dedicated and independent group of volunteers known as the Citizen Oversight Panel.

Openings on the COP are now available for the South King County and Pierce County subareas.

The COP was created in early 1997 to monitor Sound Transit and make sure it is meeting its commitments to build and operate a regional bus, light rail and commuter rail transit system. Voters approved local funding for the system in November 1996 and then again for a major expansion in 2008.

The 15 COP members represent a variety of interests, professional expertise and experience. The COP meets twice monthly during normal business hours and digs into details, asks hard questions and reports its findings to the Sound Transit Board of Directors.

To Apply

Submit both a one-page letter and a resume to:

Pat McCarthy
Sound Transit Board Chair
401 South Jackson Street
Seattle, WA 98104-2826.

The letter should include:

  • Brief statement of interest in serving on the panel
  • Specific qualifications for serving on the panel
  • Highlights of related experience and expertise

To Qualify You Must:

  • Be a registered voter within the Sound Transit District
  • Reside and/or work in King County, Pierce County or Snohomish County within the Sound Transit district boundary
  • Have experience/skills in one or more areas of expertise related to the panel's responsibilities-business and finance management, engineering, large projects construction management, public facilities and service, government processes, and public policy development or review
  • Be able to attend meetings twice each month during normal business hours.

Appointment Process:

Copies of all letters and resumes will be provided to the Sound Transit Board for its review. The Board's Executive Committee will review the nominations and recommend candidates. The Board of Directors will confirm the appointments.

Sound Transit actively seeks to include persons from diverse backgrounds and professional areas of expertise to support agency oversight, planning and operations. Persons of color and women are encouraged to apply.


Duties of the Citizen Oversight Panel (COP)

The Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel is a 15-member panel of citizen volunteers appointed by Sound Transit's Board to monitor and report on Sound Transit performance in delivering on the commitments it made in Sound Move, ­the 10-Year Regional Transit System Plan approved by the region's voters in November 1996.

The Citizen Oversight Panel is an independent body charged with monitoring Sound Transit's performance in the following areas:

  • adherence to its public commitments
  • open and timely involvement of citizens
  • the process of evaluating project alternatives
  • capital and operating budgets and finance plans
  • management of the regional fund
  • equity in subarea budgets and reporting
  • adherence to schedules and budgets
  • review of annual performance audits

COP Reports

The panel reports its findings and areas for suggested improvement to the Sound Transit Board. The panel intends that its work on behalf of the region's citizen will help ensure the success of the plans and investments in improving transportation through vigilance, continuous feedback, and constructive suggestions.

pdf System Access Task Force Final Report

More COP Reports

COP members

Panel members are appointed by the Sound Transit Board to serve four year terms. The members represent a variety of interests, professional expertise and experience. At least two members are appointed from each of the five geographic subareas of the Sound Transit District. The first panel was appointed in February 1997 from responses to an invitation for letters of interest. As positions become open for new appointments, public notice will be given.

Current COP members

Annette P. Bailes
Ms. Bailes has over 30 years experience as an office and facilities manager and currently works for the Washington Insurance Examining Bureau and Washington Surveying & Rating Bureau in Seattle. Her areas of expertise include project, budget and accounts management and she is a Certified Facility Manager. Among many other roles, she has served as her company's commute trip reduction specialist. Ms. Bailes is active in a number of charitable organizations in her community, is a board member and officer of the Rainier Chorale, and sings in her church chancel choir. She resides in Kent and is a regular Sounder commuter.

Josh Benaloh, COP Vice Chair
Dr. Benaloh is Senior Cryptographer at Microsoft Research and an affiliate faculty member in Computer Science at the University of Washington. In addition to his background in technology, Dr. Benaloh has a deep interest in urban planning and transportation. He is a resident of Redmond where he serves on the Overlake Neighborhood Citizen Advisory Committee and the Bellevue-Redmond RapidRide Advisory Panel. Dr. Benaloh holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University.

Aubrey Davis
Mr. Davis has a distinguished record of public service on health care and transportation policy in the Puget Sound region. He has served as Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation, as chair of the Washington Transportation Commission, on the executive committee of the TransLake study and on the Expert Review Panel for Sound Transit, among many other roles. He was a founding Board member and CEO of Group Health Cooperative, Mayor of the City of Mercer Island and is the chair of two private companies. Mr. Davis is a resident of Seattle and his other interests include the arts and baseball.

Bob Goldstein
Mr. Goldstein brings financial and budget expertise to the Panel, having served as a chief financial officer, capital finance manager, budget manager and budget and policy analyst for the Seattle Public Library System, the Seattle School District, the City of Seattle and the California Legislature. Mr. Goldstein is also a published author and journalist having covered local, county and state government for the Bellevue Journal-American and the Walla-Walla Union-Bulletin. His policy areas have included transportation, K-12 education, capital project financial management, financial reporting and long-range planning. Mr. Goldstein is a resident of Seattle. He earned a MPA at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs.

Philip B. Lovell
Mr. Lovell retired in 2004 as Vice President and Operations Manager of Turner Construction's northwest region following a 37 year career with the company. His career in the industry involved a wide variety of projects and all phases of the design and building process. Mr. Lovell has been a manager and leader in all aspects of construction management and has been active with the Association of General Contractors and the UW Construction Industry Advisory Council. He has also been a member since its inception of the Project Review Committee under the Washington State Capital Projects Advisory Review Board (CPARB) and is an expert in the GC/CM delivery process. Mr. Lovell is a resident of Edmonds where he chairs the city's Planning Board.

Karen J. Mask
Ms. Mask was President and CEO of KJM & Associates for over 21 years before selling her company in 2007. KJM was in the project and construction management field and Ms. Mask's extensive experience with numerous federal, state and city projects encompasses development, management, permitting, zoning and community development. Ms. Mask also taught project management classes and authored workbooks and manuals on project management implementation plans, procedures and techniques. Ms. Mask was awarded the U.S. Department of Transportation Outstanding Woman-Owned Business of the Year in 1997 and was a finalist for the Nellie Cashman award in 2000. A resident of Bellevue, she serves on the Bellevue Art Museum Board of Trustees, among other community activities.

David A. Russell
Mr. Russell is a retired professor and chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington. He earned his Ph.D. at Caltech, worked in aircraft, energy and medical engineering, and co-founded a successful engineering research firm before his retirement in 2000. Mr. Russell is a former elected official, having served as mayor and council member of the City of Kirkland and as president of the Puget Sound Regional Council. He also served on the Sound Transit Board in its early years. Mr. Russell was named Public Official of the Year by the Municipal League of King County in 1996. His current civic involvement includes Futurewise and the Cascade Land Conservancy.

Stuart L. Scheuerman, COP Chair
Mr. Scheuerman is a resident of Sumner where he previously served six years as a city councilmember; he served on the city's Regional Transit Authority Task Force and Design Review Commission, along with serving as president of the Rainier Communication Commission and is currently on the Sumner Arts Festival Board of Directors. Mr. Scheuerman is a civil engineering project manager, a licensed engineering geologist who worked with ESM Consulting Engineers in Federal Way for 19 years and is the president of BRS Development Company. Mr. Scheuerman has also served on Washington State's Joint Task Force on Green Buildings and is a current member of the APWA Stormwater Managers Committee. Mr. Scheuerman has degrees from Franklin Pierce University and Utah Technical College at Salt Lake.

Bruce W. Seiber
Mr. Seiber is a senior program manager with 25 years of experience in cost, schedule, and performance execution; logistical support; requirements analysis; and programming and budgeting, with the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense and most recently Northrop Grumman Corporation. Mr. Seiber is also a certified middle school teacher and taught algebra in the University Place School District. Mr. Seiber resides in University Place and works in Lakewood. He has degrees from the University of Puget Sound and the University of Southern California.

Virendra (Vic) K. Sood
Mr. Sood, a resident of Mountlake Terrace, has been involved with public transit services for thirty-two years. In Washington, he initiated the Public Transportation Benefit Area enabling legislation and served as first Executive Director of Community Transit in Snohomish County. He subsequently served as the first general manager of the newly formed Livermore/Amador Valley Transit Authority in the San Francisco Bay area. In retirement, Mr. Sood is active with the Board of Directors of the Snohomish County Committee for Improved Transportation, and the City of Mountlake Terrace's Planning Commission and Civic Facilities Task Force.

JD Wessling
Mr. Wessling retired in July 2005 as chief financial officer at Cascade Natural Gas Corp. where he served for over 11 years. Following retirement, Mr. Wessling and his wife volunteered with the Peace Corps and were assigned to the Republic of Moldova where they worked in community and organizational development. Prior to Cascade Natural Gas, Mr. Wessling held senior level executive positions with a number of large public and private companies. His experience includes structuring major equity and debt offerings, interacting with Wall Street bankers and analysts, planning, budgeting, information technology, and policy development. He began his 40-year financial management career with Arthur Andersen where he earned his CPA certificate. Mr. Wessling is a long time resident of downtown Seattle and, among other activities, is a past board member and Treasurer of the Pike Place Market Foundation, and an avid tennis player.

Paul J. Wiesner, MD
Dr. Wiesner is a semi-retired public health physician and first chair of the Roosevelt Sustainability Group. He is a clinical associate professor at the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice of the School of Public Health, University of Washington and is the author of more than 70 articles in scientific journals. During his public health career, he directed several national programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, served as state health officer and local health officer in a major metropolitan area and held leader roles in various national associations of public health officials. In 2002, he was honored as Local Health Officer of the Year by the National Association of Local Boards of Health.

Harold R. Wirch
Mr. Wirch, a resident of Brier, recently retired from 32 years at Snohomish County Public Works where he held a variety of engineering roles including traffic signal operations engineer, design engineer, and project engineer. During his 38-year career he also worked in Springfield, Oregon, and Pullman, Washington. The focus of his work was signal design, intersection design and pedestrian facilities at roadway intersections. He has been involved with project identification, design and review of access improvements to transit centers and park and ride lots. Mr. Wirch earned a BS in civil engineering from Washington State University.

Former Panel Members

Bruce Agnew. Edmonds, served 1997-1999.
Anoop Batra. Federal Way, served 1997.
Patsy Tsui Bonincontri. Bellevue, served 2004-2008.
Diane Carlson. Tacoma, served 1997-1999.
Arlington W. (Art) Carter Jr. Seattle, served 1997-2004, served as chair 2001-2003.
Darrell Chapman. Snohomish County, served 2002-2003.
Richard U. Chapin, Bellevue, served 2003-2011
Marcus Courtney. Seattle, served 2003-2004.
Allan B. Darr. Everett, served 1997-2001.
Bertha Eades. Redmond, served 1998-2007.
Claudia B. Ellsworth. Tacoma, served 1999-2001.
Chris Elwell
Steven M. Goldblatt. Seattle, served 1997-2003, served as chair 1997-1999.
Ramon J. Gould. Edmonds, served 2000-2004.
Donald L. Green. Lakewood, served 2005-2008.
Kevin J. Grossman. Shoreline, served 2004.
Virginia Gunby. Seattle, served 1997-2004.
Lynn A. Guttmann. Seattle, served 2006.
Rea Hagan. Tacoma, served 2001-2005.
Frederick M. Hart. Seattle, served 1997-2003.
Miriam Helgeland, Federal Way, served 2003-2011
Robert B. Hitchcock. Tacoma, served 2006-2009.
Michael A. (Tony) Hudson. Tacoma, served 1998-2000.
Bill LaBorde. Tacoma, served 2003-2008.
Terry Lukens. Bellevue, served 1997-1999.
Thomas M. Luthy. Bellevue, served 1997-2003.
Kristi A. Mandt. Seattle, served 1997-2001.
Paul W. Masten. Lynnwood, served 2004-2008.
Mary McCumber. Seattle, served 2004-2005.
Karen Miller, Mountlake Terrace, served 2003-2011
Michael W. Murphy. Seattle, served, 2008-2011.
John Murtha. Seattle, served 2005.
David Osaki. Federal Way, served 1997-2003.
C.T. Purdom. Federal Way, served 2006.
Andrew Reay-Ellers. Lake Forest Park, served 2007-2008.
Katherine Rose. Tacoma, served 1997-1998.
Donald L. Russell. Seattle, served 2003.
Thomas R. Ryan. Puyallup, served 2005-2007.
Jessyn Schor. Seattle, served 2004-2005.
Larry E. Shannon. Bellevue, served 1999-2007, served as chair 2003-2005.
Reid Shockey. Everett, served 1997-2003, served as chair 1999-2001.
Al Stipe. Federal Way, served 1997-2005.
Stephen C. Wamback. Tacoma, served 2001-2005.
Stephanie Weber. Kirkland, served 1997-98.
Phillip TK Yin. Seattle, served 2001-03.