Drafter
Clerk 08/15/2017
Title
A MOTION expressing the council's support to explore development of a transit function in the office of the ombudsman to receive, investigate and help ressolve complaints about transit and paratransit operations.
Body
WHEREAS, King County Metro Transit operates a regional transit system that provided more than one hundred twenty million boardings through three-and-a-half million service hours in 2015, and
WHEREAS, King County Metro Transit, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, includes as part of the transit system the Access paratransit service for people whose disabilities prevent them from using the regular fixed route transit system, and
WHEREAS, the Access paratransit service provided nearly nine hundred thousand rides to more than eight thousand people during 2016 at a cost of sixty-one million dollars, and
WHEREAS, in 2017, Ordinance 18449 adopted a long-range plan for Metro Transit that focused around strategies to provide additional frequent, express, local and flexible transit services by 2040, including improvements to Access paratransit, and
WHEREAS, it is the shared goal of the executive and council that Metro Transit services are efficient and cost-effective and that these services appropriately and reliably meet the diverse needs of the traveling public, and
WHEREAS, people with disabilities and advocacy organizations that work on behalf of people with disabilities have expressed concerns with the current operations of Access paratransit and its ability to reliably meet the transportation needs of people with disabilities, and
WHEREAS, the council intends to make improvements to Access paratransit, but also intends to provide a more effective and efficient way for all transit riders, including people with disabilities, to express concerns about transit service and to have those concerns investigated;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A. The council expresses its support to explore development of a transit function in the office of the ombudsman to receive, investigate and help resolve complaints about transit and paratransit operations.
B. The ombudsman is requested to present to the chair of the King County council by September 15, 2017, a proposal to implement a transit function within the office of the ombudsman beginning in January 2018. The proposal should include a request for any needed increased staff and budget, a proposed timeline for implementation of the new function and a description of how members of the public, including people with disabilities, will be alerted to the presence of the new function. The proposal should be presented to the chair of the council in the form of a memorandum, with copies also presented by the ombudsman to the chair of the
transportation, economy and environment committee, the chief of staff and the director of legislative services.