Citizens' Mid-Year 1999 Performance Report on Sound Transit
Letter from the Chair
Executive SummaryIntroduction
The Citizen Oversight Panel Mission
The Process Used to Evaluate Sound Transit
Summary of Sound Transit Performance
- Theme 1: Keeping the Regional Vision
- Theme 2: Leadership
Accomplishments and Concerns
- Overall Agency Performance
- Link Light Rail
- Regional Express
- Sounder Commuter Rail
Areas for Improvement
Attachment:Members of the Citizen Oversight Panel
Sound Transit Finance Committee
Honorable Greg Nickels, Chair
1100 Second Avenue, Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98101
Dear Chair Nickels and Committee Members:
The Citizen Oversight Panel is pleased to submit to the Finance Committee our performance report on the first half of 1999. During our mid-year evaluation process, the Panel found several issues of concern. Many of these issues have also been shared and conveyed to us by citizens of the region. Given the Panel's mission, it is our responsibility to bring these issues to your attention.
We want to assure you that the Panel feels that Sound Transit is making progress on many fronts. Staff continue to receive high marks for their diligence and their technical accomplishments.
That said, however, the Panel needs to inform the Board about serious emerging risks we have identified that threaten the program's mission, budget and schedule
In preparing this mid-year performance report on Sound Transit, we have sought the views of the public, of stakeholder groups and of local agencies. We have brought the various perspectives of our members, representing the five subareas, to our deliberations and have found that recurring themes are being articulated. In order to clearly communicate our message, we have chosen to change the format of our report to you for this period. In this report we identify and focus on two key themes: 1) keeping the regional vision, and 2) rededicating Sound Transit leadership to the goals of staying on mission, on budget and on schedule.
We acknowledge the difficulty of a major regional endeavor involving a multitude of interests to sustain and stay focused on key principles. To do so requires that Sound Transit provide leadership to aggressively sell the regional vision that is the basis of Sound Move. The Panel urges the Board and staff to refocus on the long-term success of the plan.
Details of Sound Transit's accomplishments as well as suggested areas for improvement are outlined in the attached report. We welcome all citizen and agency comments that are addressed to us.
Sincerely,
Reid H. Shockey,
Chair
cc: Paul Miller, Sound Transit Board Chairman
Executive Summary
Introduction
In November 1996 Sound Transit (legally known as the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority) went before the voters of the region seeking approval of a ten-year plan for investments in public transportation called Sound Move. In that plan, the Board and agency promised to appoint a Citizen Oversight Panel (Panel or COP) to monitor performance and report regularly on potential areas for improvement. COP, a group of fifteen independent citizen volunteers from throughout the Sound Transit district, has now been meeting for two and a half years. This is our fifth report to the Sound Transit Board and covers the first half of 1999.
The Panel's charter calls upon it to monitor Sound Transit's delivery on its public commitments, on the involvement of citizens in the process, and on the adherence to the financial policies and finance plans as outlined in Sound Move. The Citizen Oversight Panel focuses its evaluations on three key questions: Is the agency on mission? Is it on budget? Is it on schedule?
The complete evaluation process, conducted twice each year, involves staff briefings, review of agency materials, and personal contacts with a variety of constituencies. Also included is a group evaluation in which Panel members evaluate Sound Transit's performance against its action plans and commitments. For this period, our report departs from the format of previous COP reports. At mid-year 1999, the Panel chose to focus its attention on a smaller number of key themes and topic areas, rather than the full range of Sound Transit activities. The body of this report discusses the findings, conclusions and recommendations in each topic area evaluated for this period.
Summary of Sound Transit Performance
The Citizen Oversight Panel found that at mid-year 1999, for the first time since we began reporting to the Board, we are concerned about emerging risks that we feel may threaten the mission, the budget and the schedule of Sound Move. Before proceeding, the Panel does wish to state that our concerns are not to be laid at the feet of agency management alone. During the first half of 1999, the agency continued to work hard in moving forward the development of commuter rail and light rail, regional bus service and community connection facilities. Sound Transit staff continue, for the most part, to receive high marks for their commitment and their technical accomplishments.
However, two broad themes characterize the Panel's mid-year 1999 evaluation:
Theme 1: Keeping the regional vision
In our year-end 1998 report, COP stated,
"While Sound Transit is committed to its regional mission, the Puget Sound may not yet have created a culture hospitable to regional thinking."
Today, we again find, even more than we did six months ago, that the focus of local communities and institutions on their own needs and desires threatens the regional vision that Sound Move represents. The vision of a high quality regional transportation network that links centers of activity cannot be sustained if communities and institutions insist on having every local need met. Especially Link Light Rail must be viewed as the backbone of the regional system and the initial phase of what must necessarily be a long-term strategy. Sound Transit must address the tendency toward excessively short-term and singular thinking.
COP is concerned that focus on individual interests may be causing the regional vision to unravel. We recommend Sound Transit refocus its emphasis on the regional nature and benefit of the proposal agreed upon by the voters in 1996.
Theme 2: Leadership
The Sound Move plan was born as a grand compromise among the communities of five subareas that saw a benefit to working together. This compromise was forged through the voices and actions of elected and civic leaders who crafted a plan from a regional sense of community and benefit. That plan must be sustained with the ongoing commitment of leadership. If Sound Transit does not lead, or if seeds of doubt are allowed to be planted about the plan's mission, purpose and direction, then increasingly difficult obstacles to achieving the region's goals will result.
This is a call to action to Sound Transit Board and leadership. The Panel recognizes efforts being made to bring Board members and communities into renewed and intensified dialogue with one another and commends those efforts. We urge that this engagement be strengthened and that Sound Transit leadership recommit itself to making the vision a reality.
Having voiced these concerns, the Panel wishes to emphasize that Sound Transit is not yet off track. Sound Transit must, however, provide the energy and the leadership to keep the region centered on the mission and the plan that 57% of the region's voters adopted just two and a half years ago.
Accomplishments
In addition to the comments above, COP members have a number of successes and accomplishments to highlight. In the first half of 1999, progress continued to be made:
- Overall Performance. The agency is well regarded for its prodigious efforts and for the progress made to date. Staff get credit for their efforts in continuing to communicate and stay engaged in problem-solving, despite the emergence of new difficult and controversial issues. Public decision-making processes are viewed as open and fair and the Board is credited with having taken the heat already for some very tough decisions.
- Link Light Rail. The light rail department is on schedule with an enormous environmental and engineering effort and is widely credited for its technical achievements.
- Regional Express. New bus service has been initiated on the high-demand Tacoma and Bellevue routes and nine additional new routes are on schedule to begin service in September. Forty-seven capital projects are in various stages of development and the department is largely on budget and on schedule with most of them.
- Sounder Commuter Rail. Despite highly complicated technical, environmental and institutional issues and some projected schedule delays in service start-up, the commuter rail department is on budget and is about to move into the construction phase for station and track improvements in South King and Pierce Counties.
Sound Transit staff and Board are commended for staying the course despite considerable challenges.
Areas for Improvement
Above, the Panel has addressed the two main themes of this semi-annual review of Sound Transit: keeping the regional vision and agency leadership. These issues of vision and leadership are the paramount concerns of this Citizen Oversight Panel. However, additional areas for improvement are important to note as well. In its last report, COP highlighted concerns about two important issues: 1) financial risk and 2) communication with stakeholders and communities. Both of these concerns continue.
Managing financial risk
Budget constraints are putting pressure on nearly every area of the agency's work. While staff appear committed to controlling costs and making strong efforts to manage budgets, concerns still exist. Despite a strong local economy and what Sound Move projected to be "very conservative" estimates of revenues and expenditures, budgets are tight in every program. Administrative costs are rising as the agency learns what it will take to manage a program of this magnitude. Sound Transit also must deal with communities and partner agencies whose many individual requests will surely cause available budgets to be exceeded unless the Board and staff are prepared to be firm.
Especially in Link Light Rail, the latest staff financial analyses indicate a gap between costs and revenues. For the Seattle/North King subarea, local tax revenues are lower than projected in Sound Move. Shortfalls in federal funding appear on the horizon as Congressional appropriations appear to be falling short of projections. There are still many options for structuring the project and it is premature to refer to "cost overruns," however, COP members are concerned about the ability to keep the project within budget.
Communication
Communication challenges still exist. In some instances, staff have been faulted for appearing not to listen, for failure to work collaboratively or for responding to community input only when pressured. Management has taken such feedback seriously and staff continue to work hard at improving their ability to listen, problem-solve and respond. In 1999, Sound Transit has undertaken management changes, new outreach efforts and a performance audit of the agency's public involvement. Nevertheless, communication issues remain a troublesome aspect of the program and agency efforts must be reevaluated to ensure long-term success.
Additional details on both accomplishments and areas of concern are provided in the full report.
